www.redbulletin.com
an almost independent monthly magazine / April 2010
Slam-dunk Superstar
The remarkable rise of the NBA’s Rajon Rondo
Mad Mike catch my drift?
EUR ¤3.50 GBP £3 ZAR 34.95 NZD $6.95
Smokin’ and sideways at 230kph in a bad-ass rocketship that burns 28 tyres a day. business as usual for ‘mad’ mike whiddett
Experience
Print 2.0
Zoë Bell
Hollywood’s hottest, hardest stuntwoman – unleashed!
Thongs that go bump in the fight The brutal power of Senegalese wrestling
Roaring 40s
Onboard and overboard with the extreme yacht series
The all new BMW X1
www.bmw.co.nz/X1
BullHorn
in the thick of it “Exclusive” is a word you’ll read frequently in magazines and newspapers – often with good reason, as a truly exclusive story is any journalist’s holy grail. Being first, best, closest, fastest – these are the superlatives that excite media types (in much the same way, incidentally, as they excite the subjects we write about). So it’s with just a hint of pride in a pukka exclusive that The Red Bulletin steers you this month to our story about a new all-action sailing series: Extreme 40s. Its mission is to take sailing fans closer to the action than they have ever before been able to get, and to understand what they see before them without having to navigate an arcane rules structure. Bright idea – and the organisers weren’t bluffing about the heralded bumps and scrapes that are an inherent part of the series’ appeal: our reporter witnessed one close-fought manoeuvre, during which the Red Bull boat capsized, injuring a crewman. Because we were right there (striving to be first, best, closest, fastest), we accompanied the stricken sailor to hospital in Oman, even heading to the local pharmacy later that night to pick up his prescription drugs. Not the kind of tale you’ll come across every day. The Bulletin’s commitment to getting its writers and photographers in the right places has taken our ‘crew’ far and wide this month: to Salzburg for a one-on-one with star cliff diver Gary Hunt; to the USA to dunk slams with cover star Rajon Rondo; to Cape Town, for a look at the grassiest roots of the thriving South African music scene; to Croatia for a taste of the club nightlife. Our goody-bag of stories offers (we hope!) a breadth and depth you’ll struggle to find elsewhere, and if nothing else – love us or loathe us – you’ll know for sure we’ve been out there for real in the ceaseless quest for the elusive exclusive.
Cover Photography: Marius Bugge/Vistalux/Rex Features
Your editorial team
Out of Africa Three of our top stories this month come from this amazingly diverse continent. Read about: Jane Goodall (top) and her work with chimpanzees in Tanzania; the music scene in Cape Town (centre); and the excitement of West African wrestling (above)
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Your Red Bulletin can do more than you think Movies, Sound, Animation Print 2.0 – the extra dimension in your Red Bulletin. In this issue you’ll find links in these stories:
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How does it work? Simply log on to en.redbulletin.com/print2.0 in your web browser then follow the instructions on page 7
Print 2.0
The new multi-media experience. Wherever you see the bull’s eye!
DEFYING LOGIC
Reg. charity 267444 Photo: © Rodrigo Baleia.
Cattle ranchers in Paraguay want to cut down vast tracts of uncontacted Indians’ rainforest and still portray themselves as environmentally responsible. How? Simple. Just call the islands of forests that are left ‘nature reserves’. Help restore logic. www.restorelogic.org/paraguay
Contents
welcome to the world of Red Bull
Inside your power-packed Red Bulletin this month…
Bullevard
10 pictures of the month 16 now and next What to see and where to be in the worlds of culture and sport 19 me and my body A leg full of metal and a fractured shoulder weren’t enough to stop F1 ace Mark Webber getting back on track
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20 Games over The stars of the 2010 Winter Olympics 22 kit bag Mountain-bike makers have kept wheels turning on tough terrain since 1984, but a lot’s changed since then 26 where’s your head at? We hunt out the bald truth behind manof-action Bruce Willis and find a former PI and platinum-selling musician 28 winning formula A real rugby man has to have the right tackle. The Springboks’ John Smit tells us how to take ’em down
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30 lucky numbers On land, in the air and on the water, people have achieved some staggering speeds. Hands up who’s been on a 200kph mountain-bike ride?
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Heroes
34 jane goodall The activist, conservationist and anthropologist talks about the passion for chimpanzees that has guided her life and touched people around the world 38 rajon rondo The point guard for the Boston Celtics had to fight to become an NBA star, and today he’s a major part of the basketball battle 44 zOË bell Hollywood’s queen of stunts is equally happy being set on fire as fighting ninjas in a Kill Bill leather catsuit 46 mike whiddett One of Auckland’s finest drivers isn’t scared of breaking bones, and now he’s drifting his way onto the radar of the US racing circuit 06
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photography: andy hall, Graeme Murray, James Dimmock, Jonathan Glynn-Smith, philipp horak, imago sportfoto, NHPA/Photoshot. Illustration: albert exergian
Action
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54 aerial surf camp As competition in the surfing world heats up, we join the sport’s elite at a new kind of boot camp, nowhere near the water 58 Cape town calling The new sounds of South Africa 64 sailing in oman Forget white trousers, deck shoes and champagne: the Extreme Sailing Series does exactly what it says on the tin 72 wrestling The wrestlers of West Africa play by one rule only: anything goes
More Body & Mind
80 gary hunt Dinner at Hangar-7 with the cliff diver – who’s also a criminologist 82 get the gear Roman Hagara, Skipper of the Red Bull Extreme 40, on his must-have kit 84 red bull x-fighters A new X-Fighters series revs up with fresh talent and new stops 86 listings Worldwide, day and night, our guide to the ultimate month-long weekend 90 nightlife Hip-hop legend DJ Premier, Doves in Manchester, at the London Red Bull Music Academy, and Croatia is a blur 96 short story The real story is closer than you think 98 russell Brown A different way of viewing the world
the red Bulletin Print 2.0 Movies, sounds and animation wherever you see this sign in your Red Bulletin 1
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en.redbulletin.com/ print2.0 In your browser window you’ll see the magazine cover. Just click at ‘Start Bull’s Eye’
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Switch on your webcam If a webcam activation window opens, just click ‘activate’
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Hold your Red Bulletin up to the webcam You’ll see all the multimedia content in this month’s mag – movies, sound and animation
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illustration: dietmar kainrath
K a i n r at h
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Print 2.0
en.redbulletin.com/print2.0 To see the video of the Sunset Session
Va n co u v e r , C a n a da
Mind the gap
photography: 2009 Scott Serfas
A few years back, Canadian skateboarder Ryan DeCenzo was circling over downtown Vancouver in a helicopter. He was on the lookout for those oh-so-tempting gaps between two roofs which attract skateboarders like moths to a flame. They are to skateboarders what untouched deep-snow slopes are to freestyle skiers, and the larger the gap, the better the stunt. It was sheer luck that DeCenzo’s chopper trip took him over the port and docks, giving him a bird’s-eye view of so many containers and barges floating in the water. The rest was easy: all he had to do was wait for a clear summer’s evening with a perfect sunset and then jump, jump, jump… For all the latest news on Ryan DeCenzo visit www.redbullskateboarding.com
Bullevard Finding new routes to the best sport and culture from around the world
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photography: matt domanski
s q ua m i s h, c a n a da
north shore thing To British Columbia, where the elevated log-and-bridge mountain bike trails built in the mountains outside Vancouver are known around the world by their place of origin, as North Shore trails. Here, Californian freestyle rider Cam McCaul ably demonstrates a Superman Seat Grab during a lengthy session of tricks made possible by the construction of an elevated landing ramp. And though McCaul’s gall is to be admired, spare a thought for the member of his support team who spent the day wading in and out of the freezing cold creek, just in case Superman lost his powers for a second. (Out of shot here, his services were not called upon.)
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M e r k e r s-k i e s e l bac h, g e r m a n y Foto d e s m o n at s (2)
‘yours... no, Mine!’ Headline_02
photography: Ray Demski/Red Bull Photofiles
That’s both ‘mine’ as in the reigning world volleyball champions deciding who’s up next, and a former salt excavation facility deep Ignabeneath ad modipsumsan ulput Germany. autatin estie magnim dolore the Werravenisl valleydelit in central Jonas Reckermann dolortionsed diatBrink aute feum nonsequis nulla nit (left) and Julius are 420m below nullamet the surface so alit theylorem can train alis esto dolum adio eui bla adiam, sequisit nulputin praessit at theeros closest-to-Copacabana conditions available their home adip et, quat. Ut in and exer30 sendipi smodole sequisim country: it’s 30°C per cent humidity down zzriliqui there (and there’s euiscillaore eumtoo; noswhat esequis dunt et vulla feugiat. a soft landing looks likelaorperate rock beneath them is just the lie Ibh erit ilisi tem zzrilisit lutat. To dolorer at augiam of the sand). In 2009, the pairing became the firstdoloborper Europeans,se men modolobore dolestrud min utpat, sumsandre exercilis nibh esto or women, to win the world title, and whenex the 2010 Swatch FIVB et utpatet, qui begins blan vulputa tionum volorem augiame te World Tour later this month in Brasilia, theytueraesed will be ranked delit atuero feugue min henis nostis inim first ulput and the teamdo toeu beat. It’ll also become cleardoif coreetuer this special kind adio enit wisi. of altitude training– ‘depth charge’? ‘tunnel vision’? – has paid off. Verortung You’ll find all this season’s fixtures and info at www.fivb.com Termin Weblink
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So there’s a soccer World Cup in South Africa this summer, but before that, the best freestyle footballers head for Cape Town and the Red Bull Street Style World Finals. Here’s our man:
Graeson Cooper
Easy does it “The key to freestyle football is to make it look effortless,” says the 19-year-old from West Auckland who will represent New Zealand at the Red Bull Street Style World Final in South Africa. “Everybody can do the moves but they can look sloppy. I practise my moves over and over again to make them look polished.” 3-2-1 “I don’t have a routine. It’s whatever comes to mind. It’s always different. You have to react to the music and go with the flow. Freestyle football is ‘three minutes, two players, one ball’. You get 30 seconds to do your thing, then you have to pass
the ball over. You get judged on your control, creativity and style.” Pick up sticks “I was really into juggling (keepie uppie) and then I saw those Nike ads with Ronaldinho and the Stickman and I was amazed. I didn’t think those things were even possible. I did some research on the internet, I learned a few moves and started practising and practising.” Keep it up “My ‘keepie uppie’ record is 3000. I woke up one morning and decided I wanted to set a new record. I stopped at 3000 because it was a big round number. I think it took me an hour.” Clowning around “I used to play 11-a-side football but the other players called me a clown. I wasn’t too tricky during games because they’d hack you down. You don’t really want to take the piss too much in a Saturday league game or you’ll end up with a broken leg.” Break it down “There is a big breakdance influence in freestyle football now, so I’ve been practising backflips and handstands because the judges are looking for freestyle football, acrobatics and breakdancing fused together, not just pure freestyle football.”
Joined at the hip “I used to take my football everywhere but it was a bit weird. I dribble around the house and I practise when I’m watching TV; I bounce the ball off my shoulder and stuff. I train for up to three hours a day and I video myself over and over again in the garage to see where I’m going wrong.” Feet of God “There is a guy called Abdullah in Amsterdam. They call him the Amsterdam Maradona. It’s crazy what he can do. He’s 43 years old and he’s the oldest freestyler out there, but I think he’s the best. He was one of the reasons I qualified for the world final. I was up until three o’clock in the morning before the Australian final watching clips of him on YouTube to get me in the mood while all my competitors were sleeping.” Imitate to innovate “I’m known as the copycat by some other freestylers. I watch Abdullah so much and my style is kinda like his. I’m hated by some other freestylers because of that, and if you put our videos together I suppose they do look similar, but it’s still my style.” en.redbulletin.com/print2.0 You can see the World Finals live at www.redbullstreetstyle.com
PICTURES OF THE MONTH
every shot on target Email your pics with a Red Bull flavour to letters@redbulletin.com. Every one we print wins a pair of Sennheiser PMX 80 Sport II headphones. These sleek, sporty and rugged stereo ’phones feature an ergonomic neckband and vertical transducer system for optimum fit and comfort. Their sweat- and water-resistant construction also makes them ideal for all music-loving sports enthusiasts. www.sennheiser.co.uk letters@redbulletin.com
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Mount Oliver A view of New Zealand’s highest mountain, Aoraki/Mount Cook, and some high-altitude reading matter for later. Katharina Gellner
b u l l e va r d Print 2.0
Night Waves
en.redbulletin.com/print2.0 Perfect your freestyle skills with the Red Bulletin tricktionary
Leogang British rider Sam Pilgrim takes victory Linz on the Austrian snow of the freestyle course at White Style 2010. Marcel Lämmerhirt
Words: Robert Tighe. Photography: graeme murray/Red Bull Photofiles, mark watson/red bull photofiles, ray demski/red bull photofiles
High times: the first get-together of the world’s best freestyle footballers at the first Red Bull Street Style World Finals in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2008
Surfing after sundown in NZ
“In snowy weather conditions, please use the handrail when taking the stairs.” Marc Swoboda goes for a slide at Red Bull Upside Down. Erwin Polanc
Despite the dark, the cold and a couple of bronze whalers, New Zealand’s best young surfing talent spent a magical night on the water at Te Arai Point. Ambient light from large heliumfilled balloons tethered 14m above the water’s edge allowed the surfers – Morehu Roberts, Tim O’Connor, Braedon Williams, Nick White and Sam Willis – to do their stuff. But without the makeshift mini-moons, the five men would not have had to deal with other unwelcome creatures. “The bugs came out to play tonight alright,” said Sam Willis, “but it was a lot of fun. Beats working, that’s for sure.” Nick White was more concerned about the sharks: “I’m glad I was told about them after we got out, and not while we were out there.” More light on this story at www.redbull.co.nz
Los Angeles Eight hometown DJs rock the Hollywood Playhouse as part of the journey to the Red Bull Thre3Style national finals. Carlo Cruz 17
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rete Pa h t r
The Future Of soccer Back Of The Debt European football’s governing body recently subjected its leading clubs to a ch-ching check-up, taking the financial temperature of 730 first-division teams across the 53 UEFA nations. Despite a net loss, and instances of massive debt at some of the biggest and most successful clubs, the game, from Champions League down to the top flight in San Marino, appears to be in rude health. It’s a miracle! Rather than an act of God, it’s the willingness of benefactors to pump in money, and of banks and financial institutions to treat football clubs as special cases, that keeps the wolves from the door. And although, in England, Portsmouth became the first Premier League team to enter administration, clubs on the verge of bankruptcy tend not to go under.
Lima The first round of mp3 music clash Red Bull I-Battle, teams took the phrase, “If you want to get ahead get a hat”, literally. Renzo Giraldo
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Let’s take Real Madrid, for example. Colourful club president Florentino Pérez, who in his early days oversaw the spending of $1.2bn, has recently been flashing the cash again. In order to get Ronaldo, Kaka and others to come on board for the best part of $490m, he took out a loan of $290m with two major banks, in spite of Real’s existing astronomical debts. As a whole, according to the 2007-08 accounts analysed in UEFA’s report, La Liga clubs owe a total close to $2bn; in England, 18 of the 20 Premier League teams are in combined debt to the tune of $7.4bn, almost four times as much. In Spain, the government plans to raise the privileged tax rate currently enjoyed by foreign footballers from 24 per cent to 43 per cent, which could see top players leaving, most likely for
Singapore
It takes two to tango – or so thought the B-Boys who doubled up to compete in teams at Red Bull Street Battles. Mark Teo
England. High wages are no problem there, even at medium-sized clubs such as Birmingham City, which became the 10th Premier League side to go into overseas ownership in October 2009; Hong Kong investor Carson Yeung now owns a 94 per cent stake in the team. Asian, American, Russian and Middle Eastern tycoons are as much a part of English football life as witty fan songs and players playing away after away games. Mansour Bin Zayed al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family, generously donated $275m to Manchester City in 2009, as a transferfee war chest – it made up a quarter of all the money that was spent by Premier League clubs last year – and that came after he’d paid off the club’s debts. Your club: rich times or cash-poor? The full report is at www.uefa.com
Buga Alejandro Caro is on top of the world at Red Bull Upside Down, after a home win proving once again why he’s part of the BMX elite. Camilo Rozo
Words: Andreas Jaros. Illustration: Heri Irawan
Next in our series for World Cup year: how football profits despite big losses
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Me And My Body
mark webber
Last season, F1’s Australian ace traded career-threatening injury for a career-first appearance on top of the podium: no mean feat with a leg full of metal…
Them’s The Breaks
“In November 2008, during my annual endurance event in Tasmania, I was riding my mountain bike and collided with a 4x4 at around 40kph. It left me with an open double compound fracture of the lower right leg – my tibia and fibula were snapped in half – and a fractured shoulder. They operated and put a titanium rod and fixing screws in my leg. It was bad, but not starting the F1 season in March wasn’t an option. I was the fittest I’ve been in my life when I hit that car, which really helped. And I had great people around that really sped up my healing, though you wouldn’t prescribe some of the things we’ve done, like training on the bike only four weeks after the accident. We threw everything at the problem. I did lots of swimming and leg exercises; I used a cryogenic chamber [spending three minutes at a time at -130°C]. I used a bone growth simulator, which you put on the site of the break and it makes your bone think it’s load-bearing when you’re at rest, using electrical pulses. But I went a bit crazy with it, which is why there’s a rounding you can see. Now that shin’s practically bulletproof! After five surgeries I’ve just got the rod left in there now. In a way I was lucky only having 15-20 weeks of severe disruption: if the car had been 1m to the right it would have been a different story for me.”
words: Ruth Morgan. Photography: David Clerihew
Food For Thought
“I’m rubbish in the kitchen. I’d love to be good, but my patience isn’t great. And clearing up… [sighs deeply]… it’s a pain in the arse. I love chocolate and ice cream, and in the last year I’ve really gained an appetite for savoury stuff, like crisps. I went a decade without them, whereas now I have a couple of packets a week. My next-door neighbour in Australia is still going at 96 and he’s the biggest sweet-eater ever, so I always think of him when I tuck into something I shouldn’t.”
Weighty Issue
Prix “There’s nothing worse than going into a Grand unprepared, because even when you’re totally ready on you still feel it afterwards. I’d like to be able to throw be to not l carefu I’m tall, a bit more muscle, but as I’m Massa ] [Felipe like s driver Tiny car. the for heavy too day, so can put a bit more grunt on. I train almost every long for go I me: for l crucia are ent enjoym and variety runs with the dogs, get on the rowing machine, go . Now kayaking. I still absolutely adore mountain biking was at I’m 33 I’ve got more efficient with training than I hing.” 20. Back then I was panicking, having a go at everyt
Neck Profit “Your shoulders are designed to hold your head up during everyday life, so the exposure to the G-forces of Formula One makes the body go, ‘What the hell’s all this about?’ My neck’s a bit longer than a lot of drivers: all the short-arses have less leverage, so it’s a bit easier for them to take the strain. But in terms of overall consistent loading, I’d be happy to take on Rugby Union front-row forwards.”
Mind How You Go “Mentally, you can deal with the pain after an accident like mine, but it’s between your ears that it tests you the most. You do have days when you go backwards, which are tough. I think, mentally, an injured athlete has to work twice as hard as a fit athlete, but when I got back in the car, helmet on, my boys around me, I don’t think it affected me at all. In fact, I made sure that it didn’t. I’ve got a big responsibility to Red Bull Racing, my team. Everyone showed faith in me to get back in the car, which gave me the confidence to think, ‘OK, you have to step up and deliver.’ Then scoring my first F1 race win surrounded by those people was incredible.”
Follow Mark and the rest of the Red Bull Racing team at www.redbullracing.com
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I P M Y l L u b s e m ga 2010 Games The 2010 Vancouver and bronze provided gold, silver a number career highlights for ars of Red Bull sports st thtak ing Lindsey Vonn’s brea wnhill do n’s me wo the to run ’s ite gold, Shaun Wh sensat ional win in the s out of ha lfpipe (48.4 point sel Lund Ak ), 50 a possible of umph tri r-G pe Su s al’ Sv ind ’s ug and Petter North the line incredible sprint to the of t en ev al fin in the ssic games – the 50km cla all are – try un cross- co ug, with unforgettable. North o won als n, rse Øystein Pette t. rin sp m tea the gold in o go Cong rat ulations als ter n, ns rge Mo as out to Thom ey (th er Gregor Schlierenzau ld go ing mp both took sk i-ju
Lindsey Vonn
Alpine skiing
: Downhill G B: Super-G
teamwith their Austr ian l and itz Lo g an lfg Wo mates am Andreas Kofler), Ad n Karl. Ma łysz and Benjami d along ye pla ite Wh n au Sh m the an l to the US nationa the g rin du r ita gu on his air was his It y. on rem ce l da me mitted. Les Paul, he later ad d that sse nfe co o als White played ’d two days earlier he the in l rea for the anthem “Jimi e, lag Vil pic ym Ol the Hendrix-st yle!” ily PS: The Red Bull fam ve ha uld wo es let ath of meda l finished sixth on the ented res rep d ha y the if table a single country.
Aksel Lund Svindal Alpine skiing
: Super-G G S: Downhill B: Giant slalom
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Ic Adam Małysz
Ski jumping
Normal hill Large hill
Shaun White
Petter Northug
Snowboarding
Cross-country skiing
Halfpipe
Gregor Schlierenzauer
Ski jumping
G: Team large hill B: Large hill B: Normal hill
Benjamin Karl
Snowboarding
Parallel giant slalom
thomas morgenstern
Ski jumping
Team large hill
photography: GEPA Pictures (2), imago sportfoto (6), Shutterstock (3)
: 50km classic cross-country G G: Team sprint s: 4x10km relay B: sprint classic B: Individual sprint
B u l l e va r d
KIT EVOLUTION
In Wheel Time
The mountain bike has had a relatively short lifespan, but it’s matured beyond its years
Bone-shaking home-modified bikes known as ‘clunkers’ had been rattling off-roaders in Marin County, California, since the 1970s. It was a rider from the Golden State, Mike Sinyard, and his bike-making chum Tim Neenan, who produced the first purpose-built, widely available mountain bike in 1981. The Specialized Stumpjumper, from which this 1984 model descended, had a road-bike frame constructed from light chromoly steel and it takes its name from the ‘Stumpjumper’ 22
tyres, the first made with a mountain-specific tread. Tougher design influences, such as chunky, dipping handlebars directly inspired by components made by German company Magura, gave the bike improved strength. But road-bike parts such as the TA Cyclotourist Triple crankset, (the pedal wheel at the bike’s centre) would often fail. Ironically though, Specialized’s versatile machine invaded cities as the ride of choice for the urban jungle.
Words: tom hall
World First Specialized Stumpjumper, 1984
photography: luke kirwan
World-Beater Gee Atherton Commencal Supreme DH, 2009 When Gee Atherton won the British Mountain Bike National Championships Downhill event in Innerleithen, Scotland, last year, it was his custom-designed Animal Commencal team-specification bike that got him across the line in one extremely fast piece. The aluminium-alloy front triangle section of Atherton’s ride is compressed to offer the lowest possible centre of gravity and take him around corners quickly, while the 200mm of travel allowed
by his Fox 40 suspension forks take care of whatever unpleasant surprises might be lurking after each turn. The engineer and suspension expert Olivier Bossard was brought in at the design stage to ensure the featherlight, intricate machinations hold together (the frame and back suspension set-up weigh in at only 4.5kg). As mountain bikes go, it’s pretty much downhill from here. Get geed up for Gee Atherton at www.animalcommencal.com
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The Eyes Have It
Creating beautiful images of hypnotically attractive women: there are worse ways to make a living Kelly Thompson (above right) is a Wellington illustrator and photographer who specialises in the female form. On gallery walls and magazine spreads, her sexy subjects, drawn or snapped, have what Thompson describes as a “sassy, flirty look”; we’re not going to disagree. She spoke to The Red Bulletin about her women and her work.
There’s a lot more of Kelly’s work on display at www.kellythompson.co.nz
Words: Robert tighe. photography: kelly thompson. Illustration: Dietmar Kainrath
What kind of women do you draw? Babes! They’re mysterious, on the cusp of
sexual liberation. They have a sex appeal that comes from confidence and that look a girl gives her partner when they’ve just reached the point of being comfortable with each other, but still have that spark. The most striking thing about your illustrations is the subject’s eyes... I’m all about the eyes. I had a show at the Gorker Gallery in Melbourne and the owner said that he felt like all the babes were staring at him no matter where he stood and it made him feel
pretty good. The eyes are the part of the illustration I spend most of my time on. I begin every drawing with the eyes and if I can’t get them right, I’ll scrap it and start on something else. I always look people in the eye when I speak to them, and there’s something fascinating about how the smallest change in someone’s eyes can change everything about them. What inspires you? I want to say something deep and meaningful here, but sometimes it really is just something as simple as a brandnew sharp pencil I really need to use! Other times I’ll photograph someone and they have a friendly feeling that makes me want to hang out with them forever. You had a 2009 exhibition called ‘Bookworms Never Go To Bed Alone’. Was that from personal experience? Ha! No, I’m terrible at making up names and was having a big stress about what to call the show. Then I saw a photo on the internet, of a girl with that on her T-shirt, and it was perfect. Someone blogged about the show, and used the phrase ‘Boys do make passes at girls who wear glasses’. I wished I’d thought of that first, to be honest. What is your favourite part of the creative process? The end. Is it wrong to say that? I just love the feeling when the stress is off and I can sit back and think, ‘Yeah, I like that.’
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b u l l e va r d
Where’s Your Head At?
Bruce Willis The bald truth behind the actor who’s had no need for moonlighting since he made his name in movies
Yipee Ki-Yay
The film that launched Willis as a bona-fide action hero, Die Hard, first passed under the noses of five other Hollywood tough guys, including Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. There were no bruised egos when the three launched the restaurant chain Planet Hollywood together in 1991. Later this year they finally appear together on screen in Sly’s action flick The Expendables.
Bruno The Kid
Born Walter Bruce Willis on a militar y base in West Germany in March 1955, the nascent superstar’s family moved to New Jersey when he was two. As a boy he suffered from a stutter, which he overcame, in part, by performing on stage. Post-college and prefame, Willis did stints as both a private investigator and a security guard, experience he drew upon for his roles in Moonlighting and Unbreakable respectively.
But seriously…
When negotiating for the role of the reluctant time traveller in 12 Monkeys, director Terry Gilliam gave the star a list of Willis acting clichés not to be used during the film. According to Premiere magazine, Gilliam told him: “This will only work if you do not smirk. Can you do a movie without that smirk?” He could and the performance has gone down as one of the actor’s best.
Break The fourth wall Moonlighting, the TV show that gave Willis his big break frequently had its characters directly address the camera, commenting on the script, the audience or the writers. However, when Willis’s and co-star Cybil Shepherd’s characters consummated their tensionfilled relationship, ratings dwindled and the series was cancelled. But by that time, Willis already had a burgeoning movie career to keep him occupied.
Under the boardwalk
Willis wasn’t the first – and unfortunately won’t be the last – Hollywood superstar to launch a parallel career in music. But he may well be the most successful: his debut album, The Return Of Bruno, was released by Motown and sold an impressive 1.2 million copies.
Never meet your heroes
For better, for worse
Willis married actress Demi Moore in Las Vegas in 1987, with Little Richard presiding. Often cited as one of the most successful marriages in Hollywood, no reason was given for their surprise split in 2000. They remain on good terms, so much so that when they eventually remarried – Moore to Ashton Kutcher and Willis to Emma Heming – each attended the other’s nuptials.
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Weapon of mass delusion
Willis was one of few Hollywood stars to publicly back the war in Iraq, and put his money where his mouth was, offering a $1m bounty to the person who captured Saddam Hussein. When the former Iraqi president was captured, military rules preventing troops from collecting such a reward meant Bruce’s fortune remained untouched.
At one time entitled ‘A Couple Of Dicks’, Willis’ latest film Cop Out is an action-comedy directed by Kevin Smith, who, having been a huge Willis fan since the TV days, was a teeny bit in awe of his leading man. “Bruce would just be like, ‘Snap out of it! You’re a grown up, I’m not David [from Moonlighting].’ He kind of shook me out of it, and we were able to work on it as collaborators rather than me kind of just like, ‘Can you do this, because I loved when you did it in Moonlighting.’” Watch the trailer for Cop Out at copoutmovie.warnerbros.com
Words: Wesley Doyle. illustration: lie-ins and tigers
Unfak eable
Willis has never shied away from the fact he was losing his hair, in fact it added to his everyman persona. He’s also prepared to don a wig, should the role demand it, which has resulted in some frankly astounding hairpieces. “Hair loss is God’s way of telling me I’m human.” We’re sure the trademark smirk was in place when he said this.
now available: the only shot that gives you wings. kunde
small enough for your glove box, strong enough for the open road.
b u l l e va r d
Winning Formula
Great tackle!
What happens when two world-class rugby players collide? The Springboks’ skipper has been there and done it; our boffin also gives the science a try
The prof “A rugby training manual reads like a physics textbook,” says Professor Thomas Schrefl, from St Pölten University, Austria, and The University of Sheffield, England. “Concepts and quantities such as mass, velocity and momentum are essential for the tactics of the game. Playing rugby requires a lot of power, so the players must to keep their calorie intake high. “At tackle, kinetic energy is transferred into heat, sound, and deformation of the body. Player A running with a velocity vA has a kinetic energy of m AvA 2/2, whereby m A is the mass of player A. Similarly, player B has a kinetic energy of m BvB2/2. Tackling is an inelastic collision. The tackler, A, runs into B and wraps his arms around B’s body. They slide with a common velocity v on the grass until the friction stops them. The energy that goes into body deformation is the difference between the kinetic energy before the collision and the kinetic energy after the collision: ΔE = m AvA 2/2 + m BvB2/2 – (m A + m B)v2/2. “The velocity after collision v can be calculated using Newton’s third law: the total momentum before the collision equals the total momentum after the collision. The momentum, which is given by the product of mass and velocity, is a vector quantity. It has a direction. The energy transfer depends on the angle of attack between the two players. If they run with opposite velocity straight into each other, they come to a complete stop after the collision. All their kinetic energy goes into body deformation and heat: this is painful and can cause serious injuries. “For a more realistic scenario – a tackle with angle of attack of 45° – energy transfer is about 4000 Joules, when the speed and mass of the players were 5m/s, 8m/s, and 110kg: the same as the potential energy of a player jumping down from a height of 3.7m.” World rugby news and World Cup 2011 info is at www.irb.com
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Words: Steve Smith, Thomas schrefl. Photography: Dave Lintott/Offside. Illustration: Mandy Fischer
The pro “The really big tackle always comes when your opponent hasn’t had time to set himself or hasn’t seen you,” says John Smit, South African rugby skipper, his sport’s most capped international captain. “From then it’s all about picking the right line, getting your timing right, and using the right technique. “You’ve got to hit the guy somewhere between his shoulder and his midriff: basically, the chest area. Just before you tackle him, drop your shoulder and drop your legs a little so your centre of gravity lowers into a dip. We call it the power step. Then, as you hit him, angle your body upwards with a line through your leg, the whole side of your body, into your shoulder. A really good tackle should leave your shoulder stinging. “I remember one particular tackle against the All Blacks, at Newlands in Cape Town. I just read it right. I had lined up Mils Muliaina; I knew he was going to get the ball. He didn’t see me and I hit with a big left leg and shoulder. The ball went flying out his hands and I knocked him flat. I think my shoulder hurt for six months after that…”
The impact zone: Springboks' captain John Smit provides the All Blacks with a practical physics lesson. The theme? Inelastic collision
B u l l e va r d
Lucky Numbers
Speed Records
Later this year, Felix Baumgartner will be the first man to break the sound barrier without a machine, during his freefall from space in the Red Bull Stratos project. He’s the latest in a line of world’s fastests
27.79
So laid back he’s almost horizontal: Sam Whittingham used a recumbent bike, the kind with the low, reclining seat, to set the world flat track pushbike record of 82.82mph (133.284kph, measured over 200m, with a flying start), on September 18, 2009, at Battle Mountain, Nevada. The absolute speed record holder on two wheels is Eric Barone – former stunt double of Sylvester Stallone and Jean-Claude van Damme – who careered down a piste at Les Arcs on a special carbonfibre bike and hit a top speed of 137.94mph (222kph) on April 21, 2000. Markus Stöckl is the fastest man on a mountain bike, having reached a speed of 130.74mph (210.4kph) on September 14, 2007.
BOLT
4520
156.21
The art of downhill skiing, only faster and straighter and on shorter skis (2.4m), speed-skiing was a demonstration sport at the 1992 Winter Olympic Games in Albertville, France, but never gained official Olympic status. However, its true day in the sun came during an event on April 19, 2006, across France in Les Arcs, when Italy’s Simone Origone set the men’s best-ever of 156.21mph (251.4kph) and Sanna Tidstrand of Sweden set a new women’s record of 151.36mph (243.59kph).
The speed record for a manned aircraft is a little older. On October 3, 1967, US Air Force pilot William Knight reached 4520mph (7274kph), mach 6.72, in his rocketpowered X-15 (top). The test aircraft, only three of which were produced and which lunar perambulator Neil Armstrong was one of the lucky few to fly, was anything but economical: its XLR99-RM2 engine burned 15 tonnes of rocket fuel in three minutes.
KNIGHT
763.03 If Andy Green had been caught by speed cameras during his particular record attempt, on October 15, 1997, he wouldn’t have only been banned from driving, his licence would most likely have been sealed in concrete and thrown off a ferry. The fighter pilot set the world land speed record of 763.03mph (1227.985kph) in his jet-propelled ThrustSSC vehicle in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, becoming the first man to break the sound barrier in a car; his 0-600 was about 16 seconds.
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317.6 GREEN
Ken Warby is right to call himself The Fastest Man on Water. To earn that moniker, he designed and built a boat, The Spirit of Australia, named in honour of his homeland and powered by a second-hand engine from a military jet. On October 8, 1978, at Blowering Dam in New South Wales, he became the first boatman to surpass 300mph (482.8kph), and went on to notch a top speed of 317.6mph (511.13kph). The 70-year-old is now working on another boat, Aussie Spirit, to try to increase his record. Get up to speed on Baumgartner’s big adventure via www.redbullstratos.com
Words: Ulirich corazza. photography: Neil Munns/AP, imago sportfoto, Nasa, US Air Force
There was a magic moment at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin on August 16 last year, when Usain Bolt toyed with the spectators, the camera and his opponents. In running the 100m in 9.58 seconds, the 2008 triple Olympic gold-medal winner was the first man to go below 9.60 seconds and reached a top speed of 27.79mph (44.72kph).
82.82
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BEYOND THE ORDINARY THE RED BULLETIN
Credit photography: Greg Nelson/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images
Rajon Rondo (centre) in action for Eastern Conference, against Western Conference, in the NBA All-Star Game at Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, Texas, February 14, 2010. East won 141-139
Heroes From the centre of the court to the edge of endeavour
34 jane goodall 38 rajon rondo 44 zoĂŤ bell 46 mike whiddett
Heroes
Jane Goodall
Hers is name that resonates with conservationists and eco-warriors throughout the world. In a exclusive interview, the godmother of chimpanzee anthropology reflects on a life driven by animal passion Words: Robert Sperl Photography: Emma Hardy
Name Valerie Jane Morris Goodall Born April 3, 1934, London Lives in Bournemouth (England), Gombe (Tanzania) Education Secretarial college, graduated from Cambridge in 1965 Family Widowed, married twice (one son from first marriage) Has researched the chimpanzees in the Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania since 1960, living among them Established the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) in 1977 – it has 21 branches worldwide – to protect chimpanzees and their habitats and to promote innovative protection of the environment Roots & Shoots is part of the JGI which targets young people and has more than 500,000 members in about 120 countries Awards DBE (Dame of the British Empire) in 2003, UN peace envoy Website www.janegoodall.org
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A narrow, white, terraced house in London’s elegant Notting Hill, probably 19th century, but ageless. The address has been hard to find. The alley I’m looking for changes name twice. This is where Jane Goodall is based when in Europe representing her institute. You can peep into the basement living room from outside. Goodall is sitting on a bamboo-green sofa. She’s petite and lost in what she’s saying. With her grey ponytail, she’s immediately recognisable as the chimpanzee expert who began to unravel the secrets of these apes and, thereby, part of the secret of humanity itself in Gombe, Tanzania, from 1960 onwards. She wears a heavy, arrowhead-charm around her neck. Her polo-neck jumper and fleece (indoors, remember) are a reminder that anyone who has a place for Africa in their hearts will be cold anywhere else in the world. On the wall there’s a table-sized picture of a bull elephant. But before you start wondering why such an imposing image isn’t of a chimp, Mary Lewis is there to clear up any misunderstanding. She’s Goodall’s assistant and vice-president of the Jane Goodall Institute, but has different tastes in wild animals. The chocolate cake we’ve brought makes Goodall’s face light up. A chimp would probably have brought bananas. Being here in London, Gombe must seem a world away. Do you miss Africa sitting here? I manage to keep the peace of the forest inside, in my heart. So I feel very close to the forest even if I’m far away. I was once standing in the middle of a really busy street and waiting to cross the road for something and I closed my eyes and I could make that sound of traffic into the roar of the waterfall and the wind in the trees, it was quite extraordinary. So you don’t miss the chimpanzees here? Not the chimpanzees per se, no – because now I don’t know many of them. All my old real friends have gone. But I miss the life, I miss being able to be there. Looking back over 50 years of research, have
you achieved all your goals in investigating the life of the chimpanzees? No. There are still many unanswered questions. Why do some females, during adolescence, transfer permanently into a neighbouring community, while others make several visits, mate with the males of another community, then return to the group where they were born? How much and what sort of information can a chimpanzee convey to another who is out of sight? We still haven’t analysed all the existing data, but that task is ongoing. Soon we shall be able to answer questions such as: how do the personality and child-raising skills of the mother affect the subsequent behaviour of her offspring? How does that change with the age of the mother and her change in social rank? How does she gain from looking after one child so she’s a better mother the next time? We want to find out about the relationship between the child and his father. We’ve only recently been able to find out who the fathers are – from DNA testing. Before we could only guess. You found out that chimpanzees can plan their day, eat particular herbs to fight illness, hunt, then make and use tools. In 1960 this was revolutionary. For your mentor, Louis Leakey, the famous Kenyan palaeontologist and anthropologist, this was the sign that chimps are human. Is the tool story still the most relevant result of your 50 years with them? It was very, very important at the time, particularly for me, because it enabled us to get more money. Tool making was such a startling discovery. It didn’t startle me particularly but it surprised many scientists. To me, much more fascinating is the development of long-term relationships between family members and learning that each of the males who made it to the number one position had a different strategy. In your camp in Gombe you listen to music to relax. Have you ever thought that our chimpanzee relatives are able to enjoy music in a similar way? Well not really. That’s something that I want to investigate with captive chimpanzees to find out
Natural woman: Jane Goodall’s incredible career started with a chance invitation to visit Africa, where she began studying chimpanzees and, as a result, man
Heroes
the extent to which they enjoy different kinds of music, and if it varies from adult to child or with their background. I put it as a challenge to somebody to do this. You have three buttons – chimps can easily learn to use buttons – and one would be like Bach, because it’s just pure music. One would produce something like rock and roll or jazz, something like that with African drumming. And one would be based on their own calls. Which would they choose? Would it differ with the mood they were in? It would be fascinating to know, but nobody’s done it yet. Many scientific discoveries have been made by chance. How much did luck – or a higher power – help you? I think a great spiritual power has often led me by the hand – I sometimes wonder if this has kept me safe. As for luck, when I first went to Africa, I hadn’t been to college (we couldn’t afford it). I was invited by a schoolfriend. I had to save up to get the fare – I took a job as a waitress and saved my wages and tips. Once in Kenya I heard about the late Louis Leakey and I went to see him. He offered me a job working for him as his secretary – and then he offered me the chance to study chimpanzees at Gombe. You could say it was luck, being in the right place at the right time. On the other hand all my childhood I read about Africa, and the animals there. So I was ready for that amazing opportunity. Konrad Lorenz, the late Austrian Nobel Prize winner and zoologist, once said: “I found the missing link between the higher ape and the civilised man, it’s us.” Has the world accepted in the meantime that we and the apes have the same roots? It’s generally accepted, obviously not by the creationists in America, but by and large I think it’s accepted that way back, some six to seven million years ago, we had a common ancestor. So, the more we learn about the chimpanzees the more we understand ourselves? And if we lose them we lose a part of our own history? Yes, we would lose a part of our history, that’s for sure. Certainly as we’ve learned more about the biology of the chimps, we’ve been increasingly amazed at how similar they are to us. Like the structure of DNA (theirs and ours differs by only just over one per cent). And there are amazing similarities in the anatomy of the brain and the structure of the blood – you could get a blood transfusion from a chimp. But it was learning about the ways in which their behaviour is so like 36
I had the luxury of being able to sit in the forest and do it my way ours and the fact that their minds work in much the same way, that was most fascinating. Chimps make tools, kiss, embrace, hold hands, pat each other on the back. We watched the nurturing of the mother and child, the relationship between brothers and sisters. They compete for dominance – and they even have a kind of primitive warfare. But they also show care for each other and even true altruism. It’s clear that there isn’t a sharp line dividing us from them – that’s what used to be thought, that there was a difference of kind, in fact it’s a difference of degree. There is one thing that truly makes us different and that’s our spoken language, which is, I believe, what has led to the explosive development of our intellect. Chimps cannot discuss a problem or plan for the distant future. Can we learn something from chimps to be more fit for the future? We can learn the importance of making up after a quarrel. If there has been a fight, the subordinate one often doesn’t relax until he’s approached the other and been patted gently – a reassurance from the dominant. Reconciliation – they’re very good at that. And I certainly learned from the chimps one thing that is very significant for us, and that is the huge importance of the early years of life. The way the mother treats her child is important. There’s a difference between the development of the child of a good mother – affectionate, playful, protective and above all supportive – and a bad or a less good mother who is more punitive, punishes more often and is less affectionate and playful and supportive. Human child psychiatrists and psychologists increasingly point to the importance of early experience in our children. So for me, that’s probably the most important thing I’ve learned from the chimpanzees. That, and the fact that there isn’t this sharp line dividing us from them.
How tough was it back in the 1960s for you as a young and not-yet-academic woman to start as a scientist and also to convince other scientists you had discovered something revolutionary? First of all, as I hadn’t been through university, I had a very unbiased mind, and I think I mentioned earlier I wasn’t particularly surprised that the chimps were using tools. I knew they could do it in captivity – so did everybody – but somehow the prevailing wisdom was that the clever things done by captive chimps were the result of captivity, the result of their interactions with us. As for trying to convince other scientists – well, I didn’t really mind about that. I was just focused on finding out about the chimps. I didn’t feel at a disadvantage, I wasn’t having to maintain a position in a university. I didn’t even want the PhD, it was Louis Leakey who said I had to get it so I could get my own funding in the future. Mind you, I am really, really glad I did. At the time, though, I was funded by the National Geographic Society – so I had the luxury of being able to sit in the forest and do it my way. I think it was really fortunate that I hadn’t been through university. So a little bit of luck was involved… Louis Leakey later told me that he had looked for somebody who hadn’t been to university. So I was in the right place at the right time. I didn’t ask him if I could study chimps, I wouldn’t have dreamed of it. I would have happily gone to study mice as long as I could live in the forest. Seriously! Your curiosity took you into the forests, following the chimps. Did you ever feel anxious surrounded by these creatures? Sometimes I was, of course. You’re a bit stupid if you’re never afraid, that’s why you get an adrenalin rush, it helps you take action in the face of danger. When the chimpanzees first lost their fear of me, they became very belligerent and aggressive and they would charge me. They’re huge, much stronger than me and I didn’t know what they were going to do. So I just sat there and dug holes and pretended I wasn’t interested in them, and hoped they’d realise I wasn’t dangerous. That was the worst time, going through that period of aggression. They treated me like a predator and tried to drive me away. But then when I wouldn’t go and they realised I hadn’t done anything bad to them, and dear David Greybeard came along, then everything was wonderful. David Greybeard was the first chimp whose confidence you obtained… He was so calm. I think the calmness rubbed off on the others.
Additional Photography: CSU Archives/Everett Collection/REx Features, Gunther Michel/Biosphoto
Heroes
Louis Leakey inspired not only you, but also the American Dian Fossey and Canadian Biruté Galdikas to do research on gorillas and orangutans. You were know as ‘Leakey’s Ladies’. How much information did you share? We talked, and Dian collected information on gorilla mother-child interactions, but that never came to anything. The exchange should have been better than it was. There also seem to have been some differences of opinion. Fossey called zoos ‘prisons’, whereas you called them ‘our best hope’. That was a misquote. What I actually said was, the best thing for chimps is to be in the wild in a protected area like Gombe. But in so much of the wild they’re being hunted, the forests are being cut down, they have to move somewhere else, then they bump into another group of chimps, then there’s a war because they’ve moved into another territory because they had to. At the other end of the scale, there is the 1.5m by 1.5m cage in the medical research lab. But there are also modern zoos where a lot of money has been raised to make large enclosures, where there is a decent, compatible group of chimps they get good food, a varied diet and plenty of stimulation – that’s so important, enrichment of the environment. Plus most keepers today have been to college – and they adore the chimps. The visiting public love the chimps too, and often know them by name. We have a very idealistic view of freedom – but I know if I was a chimp I would choose that good zoo over a wild existence where there was no safety. Have you ever wanted to be a chimp in order to understand them better? Not if I had to change for good, but if I could get inside them, even just for a minute, I think that would be worth years of observation. So there is something left for the second life, reborn as a chimp? Yes. Maybe I was a chimp once. Before this life? Maybe. Who knows. In the early ’90s you shifted your focus a little from chimps towards people… In the early ’90s when I flew over Gombe in a small plane, I realised that outside that tiny park virtually all the trees had gone, people were obviously struggling to survive, that there were far more people living there than the land could support, people with no money to buy food elsewhere. So how could we even try to save the chimps if the people were in such a bad situation? So that led to our TACARE (Take Care) project in 24 villages, which we’ve just extended to
a huge area in the south where they haven’t yet destroyed the forest. So the total number of villages where we work is now 42. When we began TACARE it was the villagers themselves who told the team of Tanzanians what they felt would improve their lives. It wasn’t a bunch of arrogant white people going in and saying, “Well you’re very poor and we’re very sorry for you and we’re going to do this for you.” It was, “What do you feel would be most helpful?” At first they wanted help with growing more food, education and health programmes, so that’s where we began. Eventually we were able to introduce all the other components, like fuel saving stoves, tree nurseries, the prevention of soil erosion, clean water, micro-credit opportunities for women, scholarships to enable girls to stay in school, and so on. Was this the year you started the Jane Goodall Institute? That began in 1977 and TACARE began in 1994. A very important year for me was 1986 when there was a big conference in Chicago, America, that brought together, for the first time, all those studying chimpanzees. There was a conservation session and I realised that right across Africa chimpanzee habitats were being destroyed, chimps were being hunted, and their numbers had plummeted. And there was a session on conditions in captivity that included secretly filmed footage in the medical research labs. It was shocking. I went to that conference as a scientist and I came out as an activist. People say, well wasn’t it a hard choice? It didn’t seem I had a choice, it was the Hand guiding me, if you like. It was just what I had to do. You say that your job now is to give people hope? We’re surrounded by doom and gloom, but I have four main reasons for hope. Firstly, the human brain. If you think
If I could get inside the chimps, even for a minute, I think it would be worth years of observation
how amazing it is, if you think of all the technology out there that would help us live in better harmony with nature if only we used it. There are also thousands of people who understand the need to lead lives that are less damaging to the environment. They know the importance of saving energy, saving water, those sort of things. Secondly there’s the amazing resilience of nature. You can destroy a forest, pollute a river, but with time it will recover. Thirdly, there’s the tremendous enthusiasm and dedication of young people once they know the problems and they’re empowered to take action. That’s why I am so passionate about our Roots & Shoots Programme, which is now in more than 120 countries, probably 15,000 to 18,000 groups with more than 500,000 members of all ages, preschool right through university, and more and more adults are forming groups. Each group tackles three kinds of project, chosen by the members – to show care and concern for people, animals and the environment. What are the planet’s main problems we have to solve within the next years? There are three interlinked ones, it’s hard to separate them really. One is the sheer number of human beings. Two is extreme poverty. If you go to the developing world, people are destroying the environment because what else can they do? And three, on the opposite side, is our unsustainable western lifestyle. Who are the most promising allies in the fight for the survival of the planet? Politicians? Scientists? Young people? The youth, but we have to work with them all. The scientists should have better funding for some of the innovative alternative energies. Some politicians need to better understand the problems, but even when they do they often fail to make the right decisions because they’re up against all these huge economic forces, the vested interests of major corporations. The mechanisms that enable and depend upon our unsustainable lifestyles. A film of your life, Jane’s Journey, will premiere in May, featuring Angelina Jolie… It’s what they call a theatrical documentary, shot for the cinema. Angelina Jolie is playing you? No, she’s interviewed about me and we talk about refugees. Angelina is the UN messenger for refugees and we have Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots in the refugee camps. I play me. How could somebody play me? I’m still alive, I still have my own voice, my own passion. For film info visit www.janesjourney.net. For more on Roots & Shoots go to www.rootsandshoots.org
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Heroes
Rajon Rondo
When the NBA playoffs start this month, the Boston Celtics, led by the point guard many considered a gamble, will be among the favourites for the title Words: André Voigt
Born February 22, 1986, Louisville, Kentucky, USA Lives Boston, Massachusetts Vital Statistics Height: 1.85m Weight: 78kg Loves Rollerblading Occupation NBA Pro Position Point Guard Previous Clubs College/University of Kentucky (until 2006). Selected 21st overall in the 2006 draft by the Phoenix Suns, but traded in the same year to the Boston Celtics Web www.rajonrondo9.com
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The Legends Room at the Boston Celtics’ training facility is the inner sanctum of the most traditional club in American professional basketball. Perfectly polished trophy cabinets display 65 years’ worth of cups and memorabilia, including a pair of basketball shoes worn by the legendary Larry Bird and a game jersey worn by 11-time champion Bill Russell. The Celtics have won the National Basketball Association championship a total of 17 times – the most by any club in the league. Title number 16 came in 1986 and it was a seemingly unending 22 years before the Celtics lifted the Larry O’Brien Trophy again. Rajon Rondo’s face is reflected in one of the glass cabinets. He is looking at a photo of himself with the trophy in 2008, which meant more than simply the Celtics becoming the champion club once again. Holding that gold cup proves that Rondo has made it to the very top, in spite of doubts cast by experts, fans and perhaps even some of his team-mates. Because the boy from Kentucky had never been considered a super-talent. Not at college, not even after making the transition to the professional game. But it was Rondo on whom Celtics director of basketball operations Danny Ainge gambled in the summer of 2007. After the club’s second-worst season ever, Ainge let go seven of his squad and brought in NBA veterans Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. Along with remaining all-star Paul Pierce, the ‘Big Three’ were charged with bringing back the good times to a club that had been starved of success for too long. Yet none of the three played in basketball’s most important position: point guard. The point guard is the coach’s right-hand man on the court, dictating attacking play, driving the ball forward, creating scoring opportunities for his team-mates. It was decided that to spearhead a run at the championship, the Celtics would use a 21-year-old who’d hardly made it off the reserve bench in pre-season: Rajon Pierre Rondo, born in 1986, the year the Celtics last won the title. Rondo was sitting on the couch at his mother’s house, in his hometown of Louisville, on the day
Garnett was traded to the Celtics, when his mobile rang and his coach’s number appeared on the display. “I’d seen all sorts of transfer rumours relating to me on the internet the day before,” he says. “At first I thought that Danny was going to tell me I’d be leaving the club, but then he said that Kevin Garnett was joining us. And that I was going to play point guard for the Boston Celtics.” Rondo understood what that meant. “With Garnett, Pierce and Allen on board, we had enough talent to be champions. We all knew that, and everyone expected us to win the title. And if we failed, it wouldn’t be their fault, it’d be mine.” He immediately began to train harder than he ever had. “Of course I was under pressure, but I didn’t feel it. I was ready. I couldn’t wait for the season to begin.” NO LOVE. Rajon Rondo was six when he developed a passion for a sport that he would happily have practised night and day: American Football. “That was my first love, the first sport I came into contact with. I looked up to my brother and all he did was play football. I wanted to be a quarterback. At one point I took my football with me wherever I went.” His first contact with basketball was when a cousin took him to a training session. The kid made a great impression, but for him, basketball was just something he played when he couldn’t play football. “The season fitted in perfectly with the football season. So I stayed with basketball because I wanted to do sport throughout the school year.” In both sports, Rondo had the advantage of pace and agility. “My parents were both sprinters. Speed is in the family genes.” But he was relatively slight, and his teenage body hardly gained any muscle. His mother, Amber, was worried that her boy would get hurt on the football field, not least because he was excelling at basketball to such an extent that a college scholarship was being mentioned. So she did her best to talk her son into concentrating on the safer game. Fate also had a part to play in Rondo’s ultimate
Photography: Craig Wetherby/Red Bull Photofiles
Name Rajon Pierre Rondo
Print 2.0
en.redbulletin.com/print2.0 At home with the NBA star
Shooting star: This summer, Rondo’s new contract comes into effect giving him a cool $55m over the next five years
Aiming high: Rajon Rondo has been accused of having one of the ugliest throws in the NBA, but that’s not a problem as masterminding the game is the job of the Boston Celtics No 9. But with an average of 14 points per game, he’s in the top third of all NBA guards
Heroes
“It’s hard to learn a new technique” There’s no quick fix. Rondo has to keep working on his shots
Photography: NBAE/Getty Images (2), Imago/UPi Photo (1), CJ GUNTHER/EPA/picturedesk.com (1)
choice. Doug Bibby, his coach on the high school basketball team, is the cousin of NBA star Mike Bibby, who, along with his friend and fellow pro Derek Anderson, dropped by on Doug’s training sessions. The teenaged Rondo would go on to see close-up the relaxed lifestyle of the two men, who’d both kept their feet firmly on the ground despite the riches and fame of professional sport. “Mike and Derek would pick me up in their expensive cars and we would just drive around the city. Then in the evening we’d have a barbecue or play cards.” He stopped playing football soon after. WEAK SPOT. In no other sport are the fans as close to the action as in basketball. Nowhere else is a player’s performance under such direct scrutiny. Those lucky enough to have front-row seats at an NBA game can be a metre away from the sidelines. They can hear every command and can look the players in the eye. If those fans don’t see their beloved team fighting its hardest, they will make their feelings know pretty quickly. Especially in a city like Boston that lives for basketball. An hour and half before a home game against the Dallas Mavericks earlier this year, Rajon Rondo went onto court at the TD Garden in Boston. The first few fans had already taken up their seats in the 18,624-capacity arena. Most of the players were in the dressing room, getting taped, stretching, listening to music. Rondo also had the white wires from his iPhone headphones dangling from his ears, but he was working. Fully focused, he reeled off one jump shot after another; sometimes after dribbling, sometimes from a standing position. In making the shot, Rondo stretches his throwing arm, gently rotates his wrist, caresses the ball with his fingertips in the final phase of the throw. It is what a throw is meant to look like, and it is what Rondo’s shots look like during training. During the game, his technique seems to desert him. Only a quarter of his threepoint field-goal shots are on target: an abject return. “I’ll probably have trouble with the jump-shot for my whole career,” he says, “but I have to carry on shooting when I can.” He has been working with Mark Price, one of the most reliable shooters in NBA history, to improve his average, and also understands that there’s no quick solution to his problem. “I’ve been playing basketball for 15 years now and am used to the shot. But it’s hard to learn a new technique in a couple of months or over a couple of summers. I need to keep working.” 41
an interview with Rajon Rondo
“We should be champions” The Boston Celtics star appears quite confident about the coming season Whenever a coach or one of your team-mates talks about you, they always say how impatient you are… “That’s true, I am impatient. It annoys me if my teammates don’t catch on to certain things fast or make the same mistake over and over. I just find it a little easier to understand moves more quickly than others.” Are you also impatient with yourself? “Yes, sometimes I get frustrated when I can’t summon up the performance I expect of myself. I’m my own harshest critic. In my first couple of years in the NBA, I’d sometimes get really mad and I’d take that out on myself or on the team. But now I’ve got that properly under control.” You were the 21st pick in the 2006 NBA Draft. Did you feel you should have been higher? “Not at all, I just wanted to play in the league. People always say that the hardest thing is to get into the NBA at all. That’s not true! It’s a lot harder to stay in the NBA. Every year new players come along who want to take your place. I’ve been a professional for four seasons and I’ve already seen a lot of guys come and go in that time.” What’s the most difficult thing for young players coming out of college who want to turn professional? “To be consistent… When you join the NBA, no one takes you by the hand. There are no babysitters. You might only be 19 or 20 but you’ve already got a lot of responsibility.” A lot of players gather old friends and family members around them who organise the day-to-day for them. They might hire their own cook. How do you do things? “I look to the veterans in my team. I had to learn what to eat before a game, how to warm up properly. The season is so long that you really have to look after yourself.” The 2010 play-offs are ahead of us. The Celtics have long struggled with injuries. Who’s going to win the title? “In the regular season anyone can beat anyone. A lot depends on how you perform on the day. But when it comes down to who’ll win a best-of-seven series, I’d bet on us every time. Even if we’re not all fit, we should still win.”
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Star player: Rajon Rondo wears the kit of the Eastern Conference team, who he played for in the NBA All-Star Game for the first time in February
SPEED KILLS. Rajon Rondo has three unique strengths: his ability to read the game, his speed and the way he can combine the two qualities. Even in the NBA, a league full of top athletes, there are few defenders who can keep up. “But,” he admits, “if you always go at top speed on the court, you won’t achieve much. You’ve got to know when to switch on the turbo. Plus, I play 37 minutes per game [out of a possible 48], and if you’re always running at full speed, you’ll be exhausted. There are 82 games in a normal season. You’ve got to ration your energy.” Even in high school, Rondo could get his head around the game, as well as his ass around court. “Back then, my coach made me analyse footage of our opponents, and I’d present my findings to the team.” He learned to listen to his opponents announcing their moves during a game and learn their patterns of play, enabling him to take control of the ball. He looks pretty relaxed in possession, dribbling with often laconic ease, but if his defender goes off-guard for a fraction of a second, Rondo attacks with lightning speed. At the end of the 2008-09 season, he applied his skills like never before. A knee injury to Garnett, then the team’s best player, seemed to have robbed the Celtics of any chance of defending their title. But in the playoffs, where he faced the Chicago Bulls and their superstar point guard Derrick Rose, Rondo set career highs in assists and points scored, equalled NBA records and, perhaps most significantly in the eyes of the fans, tied club records set by Larry Bird. Previously considered chiefly a passer and not much more, he is now thought of as among the league’s top five point guards. Gone are the times when he would be marked out as the weakest link in the Celtics’ chain. Performances such as those, and in a losing semi-final playoff series against the Orlando Magic, secured Rondo a berth in the NBA All-Star Game for the first time. It’s an accolade he’s proud of, but he’s already got his eye focused solely on the rest of the 2009-10 season and the playoffs. The Boston fans are hoping that their boy can galvanise an aging collection of stars and win another championship title. To do so, he’ll have to raise his game to the next level. “The game changes during the playoffs,” he says. “You have to concentrate even harder, expend even more energy. I don’t know how it happens, but it does. Every time you’re in possession of the ball is so important. If you lose possession of the ball in the first minute during the playoffs, that might not just cost you the game. It can cost you the season.” Rajon Rondo wants to lead his Celtics back to the top of the NBA. He wants to be responsible for them winning the title. The Big Three are now the Big Four. “Point guard is the best position in the NBA,” he says, looking at the photo with the gold cup, “but I still think I’m the best point guard in the league.” Go through the keyhole at en.redbulletin.com/print2.0 The NBA Playoffs start on April 17. For info visit www.nba.com
Photography: NBAE/Getty images
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ZoË Bell
One of Hollywood’s most famous stuntwomen is a 31-yearold from New Zealand who does the really hot stuff: she likes being set on fire – and that’s just for starters Words: Peter Krobath Photography: Ture Lillegraven
NAME Zoë J Bell Born November 17, 1978, Waiheke, New Zealand Grew up Auckland, New Zealand Currently resides Venice, California Education Auckland Girls’ Grammar School, Selwyn College in Otago. Gymnastics, taekwondo from age 15 Career Stuntwoman and double for stars such as Lucy Lawless (in TV series Xena), Sharon Stone (Catwoman), Uma Thurman (Kill Bill) and Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds). Has acted in Death Proof and Gamer (among other films). Game of Death is her next film to hit the big screen
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Zoë Bell was Uma Thurman’s stunt double for the really hot scenes in Kill Bill. Swordfights with 30 ninja gangsters at once and a couple of somersaults thrown in, that kind of thing. The film crew went to the Great Wall while shooting in China and while there, Bell answered a call of nature. She snuck into the bushes and promptly fell backwards over a drop. For most, her fall would have resulted in broken bones and a trip to the emergency unit. For Bell, a smooth backflip to land on her feet rescued the situation. It also earned her a new nickname: The Cat, one that was swiftly adopted by Kill Bill director Quentin Tarantino. For this feat, and others more scripted, Tarantino has become a paid-up fan. He asked for Bell to be Diane Kruger’s double in Inglourious Basterds, which received eight (no less) 2010 Oscar nominations. Bell’s China incident is also told in Tarantino’s film Death Proof, if in a somewhat diluted form. She told me the whole story in Cannes. “No, I kept my trousers on. Good question though.” The unquestioning admiration and respect of Hollywood’s often macho culture is something that Bell is used to as she grew up in a male environment. Once she started working in the stunt business, her reputation for reliability meant she was the first name on the ‘stunt double’ roster for female leads. There’s no ignoring Ms Bell: her skimpy outfit shouts of the self-confidence that’s essential for any performer in Tinseltown. With testosterone-fuelled directors calling the big money shots these days, there’s no room for shrinking violets. But then Bell has never been the shy, retiring type. “Even as a kid I would climb the highest walls. I started gymnastics when I was nine and discovered martial arts when I was 15. I practised as if I was learning a trade. It’s a job, even if I do love the speed and action.” Zoë Bell is now 31 and she’s already been working in the stunt business for more than 12 years. “My dad’s a doctor. But I never wanted to be a doctor myself. I asked him if he minded. ‘What?!’ he said. ‘As far as I’m concerned you can become
a prostitute as long as you enjoy what you’re doing.’ I was 14. The analogy struck me as harsh. But that’s how Kiwis speak. And I understood what he meant.” In Death Proof, Zoë Bell survives the coolest car chase since Steve McQueen in 1968’s Bullitt. She’s pursued by a crazy highway killer down Californian dirt tracks at top speeds nudging 145kph as she hangs onto the bonnet of a 1970s Dodge Challenger. No camera tricks or safety net. But it wasn’t as dangerous as it looks in the film. “In this sequence we’re pulling a fast one on the audience. They must think I was scared to death. But actually I had fun.” Bell was the stuntwoman on the TV series Xena: Warrior Princess for three years. That meant swordfights 12 hours a day, six days a week. Then came five years of Hollywood which brought her two accolades and two nominations at the Taurus World Stunt Awards. Which makes her think… “What’s the most dangerous stunt I’ve done? It’s easy to lose track. In Catwoman [another A-list role], I had to sit on a ledge for Sharon Stone. It was too difficult to get me down between shots. They thought I should just stay up there and chill. But how can you chill when you’re 23 floors up with a sheer drop below?” Cue that throaty laugh again. Zoë Bell played herself in Death Proof. It was the first time, and a success, leading to roles in the thriller Gamer, starring Gerard Butler, and action adventure Game of Death, which opens in cinemas this year, with Wesley Snipes. Already one of Hollywood’s most famous stuntwomen, she’s not averse to the idea of becoming well-known for her acting. “But then,” she reflects, “I wouldn’t be able to perform my own stunts. And how would I feel watching others do my job for me? It would be hard. But maybe I’ll think differently soon. When I’m 40 and have children… it might not be a bad thing if I’ve stopped wanting to jump off buildings. Let’s just see what happens.” Get a taste of the stunt world and discover more of Zoë Bell’s award history at www.taurusworldstuntawards.com
Fire fox: Zoe Bell is admired by Quentin Tarantino for her acting ability as well as her skills as a stuntwoman
Heroes
mike whiddett After founding a motorsport career on freestyle motocross and endless broken bones, ‘Mad Mike’ looks poised to take the US drift racing scene by storm Words: Robert Tighe Photography: Graeme Murray
Name Mike Whiddett Born January 10, 1981 Auckland, New Zealand Nickname Mad Mike Occupation Signwriter, pro drifter First Love Freestyle Motocross Achievements Beating the NZ national champion in his second-ever event; representing NZ at the 2007 World Allstars event in California, USA; making it into the top eight at the inaugural Red Bull World Drifting Championships in 2008 Drives Mazda FD RX7 Favourite Food Pasta or chocolate
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‘Mad Mike’ is an obvious nickname for any slightly out there Michael. Let’s face it; most small towns have a ‘Mad Mike’. He’s the crazy dude down the local pub who bores the regulars silly with tall tales about his drinking exploits. Or he’s the loner from the mountains who takes up running and does a Forrest Gump on it and never stops. Or in this case, he’s the kid from Auckland who started riding dirt bikes as a five-year-old and has spent his whole life trying to go higher, faster and louder. ‘Mad Mike’ Whiddett, however, has done more than most to earn his moniker. He has broken nearly every bone in his body and suffered close to 20 concussions. After a successful motocross career, Whiddett is all set for his first full season in the Formula Drift Pro Championship and the 29-year-old is confident he can make an impression in his rookie term. “They all know me in the US and they are all worried,” says ‘Mad Mike’. “I am confident we can do damage to the best in the world.” Doing damage is something Whiddett has proved adept at in the past. Bruises and breaks were a part of life for the teenage motocross tearaway, but it was after he started freestyling in his early 20s that he became a regular at Accident & Emergency. Whiddett’s reputation in motocross circles made him an obvious candidate for one of the first freestyle motocross demonstrations in New Zealand at the Big Day Out music festival in 2000. “I’ve always had this thing for showing off,” he admits. “When I was racing motocross I’d be doing no-handers and knack-knacks over the jumps.” When a friend of his asked was he still doing those tricks and interested in earning an easy 500 bucks at the Big Day Out, Whiddett jumped at the opportunity. He threw himself into the demo with his limbs flailing all over the place and the crowd roaring their approval. The excited commentator kept shouting, “…here comes Mad Mike again. Look at Mad Mike…” and the name stuck.
After the demo Whiddett was invited to pull the same stunts at a 30th birthday party the following weekend. When he got there he realised he was the guinea pig for a makeshift jump. Underneath the ramp was a van with all the windows smashed out. The DJ was in the van setting up his decks. After a couple of dummy runs, Whiddett’s bike seized halfway up the face of the takeoff. The bike fell off the end of the takeoff, crashed into the van and smashed all the turntables. Whiddett kept going. “I flew over the handlebars and landed on the down ramp on my left leg. It felt like my leg was buried in the dirt, but I had actually flipped and rolled 20ft past the down ramp. I went to grab my leg and I couldn’t feel it. I couldn’t feel it because I had snapped my femur in half and it had folded back on itself and my head was resting on my calf.” Whiddett tells the story so matter-of-factly it’s almost as if it happened to someone else. The ability to detach himself from danger (along with some titanium rods and reconstructive surgery) saw Whiddett back on his bike within six weeks, still determined to become a professional freestyle motocross rider in the US. The closest he got, however, was a couple of tours of New Zealand and Australia with the Crusty Demons. Then in 2002 at X Air, the New Zealand X Games, he suffered another serious injury. He compressed and fractured four vertebrae in his back. The doctors initially thought he was paralysed. It still wasn’t enough to convince him to give up motocross, but it did prompt him to consider alternatives. He settled on drifting. “Drifting is like freestyle motocross on four wheels,” says Whiddett. “It is about showing off. In motocross you learn about weight transfer, traction and throttle control. A kid brought up doing motocross will be a far superior drifter than a kid who’s brought up on karting.” Whiddett grew up in Auckland city, but his mum, Sue, visited her sister’s farm every weekend
Continental drifter: After conquering New Zealand’s drift scene, ‘Mad Mike’ Whiddett is now making a name for himself in the US
Heroes
“Drifting is like freestyle motocross on four wheels. A kid brought up doing motocross will be a far superior drifter than a kid brought up on karting” to go horseriding. Sue took her only child with her, but he didn’t take to jodhpurs and gymkhanas. So his mum bought him a dirt bike and Whiddett hasn’t slowed down since. By the time he was 10 years old he was joyriding in a neighbour’s Toyota Corolla paddock hack, drifting on the dewy grass and dodging the livestock. When he got his driver’s licence at the age of 16, he spent his weekends ‘hooning’ it in the hills with his mate, Mark Tapper, now a professional rally driver. Every Thursday morning they scanned the classifieds in the Trade & Exchange for the cheapest, most beat-up banger they could find. “We’d spend Thursday night welding up the diffs, taking out the windows and then spend the whole weekend in the bush on gravel roads. Whoever flipped it, crashed it or wrote it off bought the car the next week.” The weekend wipeouts were the perfect training camps for burnout competitions and Whiddett smoked the opposition. He won five Skidfests in a row before graduating to drifting in 2006, maxing out his (and his fiancé Toni’s) credit cards to build and enter a car in the D1NZ, the New Zealand Drift Championship. He beat the national champion in just his second event and was invited to represent New Zealand at the 2007 World Allstars event at Irwindale Speedway in California. The following year he finished in the top eight at the inaugural Red Bull World Drifting Championship and last year he won the Formula D Asia Pacific Championship beating 30 international drivers. Whiddett’s rapid rise through the drifting ranks convinced him he could mix it with the world’s best and he has poured everything he has into the sport. He lives on the second floor of an industrial unit in East Auckland in a two-bed apartment he shares with Toni (who is also his manager) and their twoyear-old son, Lincoln. Downstairs is the workshop for CRE8GRAFX, the signwriting business he started eight years ago. It also doubles as his garage where he works day and night on his cars. Father, businessman and professional drifter – meet ‘Motivated Mike’. “A lot of people think because I’ve got all these flash cars that I’m a ‘daddy’s boy’, but I’ve never 48
Up to speed: Whiddett beat the national drifting champion in only his second event; he was also in the top eight in the inaugural Red Bull World Drifting Championship
No smoke without fire: Tyres don’t survive long in drifting. A set lasts just three laps and drivers burn their way through 28 tyres during a day of racing
Heroes
met my father. I’ve never had a big budget and I worked three jobs to get to where I am now.” Whiddett has spoken to his dad just once. “When I was 15 I answered the phone and this guy said, ‘Is your mother home?’ When she got off the phone she told me, ‘That was your father. He wants to meet you, but I will fully understand if you don’t want to meet him.’” “I’d never heard from him. I didn’t even know what his name was, but I told her I would like to meet him. I didn’t want to meet him to see what he looked like or to get to know him. I just wanted to tell him how I felt about him leaving Mum to raise me on her own. We arranged to meet the next day, but he left a message on our answering machine saying he had to shoot away again on business, so that was that. I didn’t mind, but it has made me want to do well for my mum.” His mother’s two younger brothers – ‘a pair of hooligans’, according to Whiddett – more than filled the gap left by his father. Uncle Brandon was into spear fishing and duck shooting, and he gave his nephew a job cutting trees when he left school. Uncle Clayton worked as a car salesman and took him go-karting. Not surprisingly Whiddett was a gun behind the wheel of a go-kart. “Anything to do with wheels and I am there – skateboards, BMX, go-karts, motorbikes or cars. I love having fun and I love going fast.” Drifting isn’t all about going fast. As well as speed, three judges rate the drivers racing line (the aim is to get the back end of the car as close to the outside wall and inside clipping points as possible), angle (as sideways as possible) and style (smoking tyres, noisy engine, crowd response and an aggressive attitude all score big points). Drivers get two laps to impress the judges in qualifying before the field is whittled down to the top 32, who face off against each other in tandem battles known as tsuiso, until a winner is decided. The battle is essentially a ‘follow the leader’ format where the aim is to mirror what the lead driver does, but with more smoke and more style. A set of tyres lasts just three laps so drivers can burn their way through 28 tyres in a day of racing at $500 a tyre. MADBUL, Whiddett’s 2004 Mazda SP3 RX8 guzzles up to 250 litres of gas during competition; his number plate is FURSTY (slang for thirsty). Whiddett has already invested more than $100,000 on his ride, but some of the cars he will be racing against in the US are worth closer to half a million. Then there are the costs of competing in the seven rounds of the Formula Drift Pro Championship which starts in Long Beach, California, on April 9 and ends in October, and takes the riders from coast to coast and back again. Whiddett needed a second major sponsor to be able to afford to accept the invitation to compete in Formula Drift. At the start of January he got the phone call he was hoping for from EA Games. The gaming company will sponsor Whiddett for the 2010 season and ‘Mad Mike’ will feature in the upcoming game Need for Speed:Shift 2. EA Games’ sponsorship is recognition that drifting has well and
“Anything to do with wheels and I’m there. Skateboards, BMX, go-karts, motorbikes or cars. I love having fun and going fast” truly made the transition from the underground to the mainstream. Whiddett explains why: “It’s loud and it’s in your face. You’ve got the smell of burning rubber and gas and smoke. You’ve got Fords and Chevrolets up against Mazdas and Nissans. Kids look at a Mazda RX7 beating a $400,000 Dodge Viper and they think ‘I can buy an RX7.’” The ‘I can do that’ accessibility of drifting has helped it gain a massive following, but has also earned it a reputation as a sport for ‘boy racers’. It’s a label that irks Whiddett. “It only takes one person to mention ‘boy racers’ and ‘drifting’ on the news and you’re back to square one. Drifters are not a bunch of boy racers. We race at over 230kph and have to control a sideways slide to within 15cm of the concrete walls to get good marks.” Despite the high speeds, Whiddett hasn’t been involved in any accidents since he took up the sport, even though he still drives to the absolute limit and isn’t shy about coming into contact with his opponents’ cars or the wall. “Drifting is a lot safer than freestyle motocross. In FMX your life is on the line with every jump, especially with some of the moves the guys are doing now.” So Whiddett has waved a wistful goodbye to motocross. “I still have a dirt bike, Toni has an 85cc KTM and my son, Lincoln, has a Pee-Wee 50, so we take our bikes for a family day out. But it’s just for fun. I don’t want to break any more limbs.” To keep track of Mad Mike’s progress, visit his website www.madmike.co.nz or www.formulad.com
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Glam rocks: Colourful performer Xander Ferreira and his band Gazelle bring their brand of Afrikan Elektronik Dance Musik to the Rocking the Daisies music festival, outside Cape Town. Read more about South African musicians making a name for themselves on page 58
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54 red bull project air 58 Inside the south african music scene 64 extreme sailing 72 no-limits Wrestling
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hang time
Surfing has always been as much about lifestyle as sporting excellence, but the sport’s wave masters are more driven than ever by the desire to excel. Cue Red Bull Surfing Project Air, a special kind of surf school designed to help the elite create ripples on the world tour Words: Johnathan Jenkins Photography: Mark Watson
It might be printed in large letters outside the basketball court of the Lake Ainsworth Sport and Recreation Facility at Lennox Head, Australia, but the ‘No Skateboarding’ sign seems to be having little effect on the proceedings inside. A group of tan and toned – and fully padded-up – young men and women carve, some expertly some amateurishly, on a newly constructed wooden ramp of symmetric bowls that resemble waves with 30-degree angled ‘lips’ that drop off into a large pit filled with spongy cubes of foam. Unrecognisable as skaters, the group, upon closer inspection, reveal themselves to be a gathering of surfing’s elite – from Australian two-time world surfing champion Mick Fanning and South African aerialist Jordy Smith, to former women’s tour champ Sofia Mulanovich and rising tour star Sally Fitzgibbons. Next to the ramp is a bungee trampoline of the kind used by gymnasts, intended to help the surfers increase spatial 54
awareness. A group of coaches stand on the side and observe, putting surfing’s elite through rigorous physical and mental paces of a high-performance programme never before seen in the sport. Red Bull Surfing Project Air, taking place in the weeks before the tour start at the end of February, is part playground, part serious work with a dash of psychological terror mixed in. A group of Red Bull surfers, from Tahitian Michel Bourez and Frenchman Tim Boal to young stars like Fitzgibbons and Australian Julian Wilson, took part in the programme. Via repetition and guidance within a controlled environment, the surfers were able to attempt, and hopefully refine, aerials that would typically require months or even years of unaided effort in the open water. The techniques used have been developed with the sole purpose of preparing Red Bull surfers to be ahead of the competitive masses in competition for bragging rights over
Making waves: Two-time world surfing champion Mick Fanning puts theory into practice on finest Australian surf
Jordy Smith has made his name as one of surfing’s most ambitious aerialists
Top: Sally Fitzgibbons improves her air speed. Above: Sofia Mulanovich
new aerial trends – catching the wave, you might say. Leading the programme are high-performance guru and former Olympic coach Andy Walshe, together with partner Red Bull surf coach Andy King. Last summer in the Mentawais, Indonesia, the pair championed the introduction of GPS technology to measure paddle speeds, wave velocity and manoeuvre trajectories, along with hydration and lactic acid tests to measure the surfers’ fitness and recovery rates. At the height of the camp, Smith also pulled off one of the most stunning moves ever executed: a twisting somersault, dubbed the rodeo flip, a metre above the top of the wave. Captured using state-of-the-art high-speed equipment, the trick won ‘Clip of the Year’ at the industry’s esteemed Surfer Poll awards and seems to have marked the beginning of a new era in performance surfing. The latest innovations have been driven by the desires of top surfers such as Jordy Smith and a handful of benevolent industry backers, in pursuit of podium places on the top-flight Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) circuit. Big, segued, aerials, are now the gold standard. “It’s natural that we look to the surfers who have gone before us and then try to put our own spin on things. It’s evolution,” says the wiry and speedy Fanning, who comes from the Gold Coast, Australia’s surfing Mecca. “But I also look at what younger guys like Jordy are doing in the air and, knowing they can do crazy flips and stuff, it definitely opens your blinkers. And kids like Kolohe [Andino] are probably
looking at them too and going, ‘Oh, I can do it better than that!’ But you still need the complete package.” It’s the complete package that Walshe and King are after. Changes to ASP judging criteria at the end of last season have only emphasised that. Responding to grumblings among surfers that judging was not keeping pace with trick innovation, the tour said judges this year would focus on additional elements like ‘flow’ and ‘variety’ and place greater emphasis on ‘innovative and progressive manoeuvres’. “I think, right now, the judges don’t discriminate enough. The more technical you are, the higher you should be scored,” says Andino, the confident, Californian 16-year-old, who looks poised to be one of the sport’s bright stars. “If someone does a stalefish grab – probably the hardest grab to do – and someone else does an air reverse, they would probably get the same score. But it should be a three-point spread, at least. It’s probably just because they (the judges) don’t know the difference.” The work on the ramps and the trampoline, Walshe says, is crucial to fine-tuning the technique that will net points on the tour. But podium places won’t come through technique alone, which is why Walshe and King invited Michael Gervais. Over a couple of hours, the California-based high-performance sport psychologist put the group through a self-described “hell session”. In the pouring rain, the surfers performed dozens of pushups, sprints, crawls, swims, sit-ups and other annoying tests of endurance. When they broke, it was to take complex mental tests, including problem solving and memory assessment, under duress.
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The bungee trampoline is designed to improve the surfers’ spatial awareness
The hell session, including dozens of push-ups, pushes the surfers to the limit
Top: Legendary surfer Chris Brock with Julian Wilson. Above: Class act
The session was structured specifically to push the limits of the surfers by putting them in a “very uncomfortable space”, says Gervais, where they would need to challenge their regular coping patterns. And when they tired? “We pushed them even further,” says Gervais, who works with some of America’s top extreme athletes and ultimate fighters. “The hope is to help the team riders explore a second and possibly third gear that they’ve always had, but hadn’t really known it,” he says. “We examine their body language, try and help them understand and recognise their own internal dialogue and how they speak to themselves in pressure moments.” It was perhaps no surprise that the all-rounder Fanning was the star pupil in the elite crew. That didn’t stop Smith, who many reckon will be a force on the tour in the coming years, from being pleased with his own performance. “There’s still so much for me to learn, but it’s good to know my base was not as bad as I thought it might be,” says the South African. “People can go into training and not know their weaknesses, which can lead to problems, but it turns out that while some surfers were very good in some areas and very bad in others, all my results were pretty consistent. I thought with stretching I would be terribly stiff, but I discovered that I was one of the better ones, and I did well with the strength tests, too. The things I need to focus on are more to do with pressure situations, the mental stuff.” Back at the ramp, Walshe watched keenly as the surfers tried to adapt to unfamiliar surroundings. After initially being
cautious and wearing plenty of padding, they started to go bigger and bigger. The young grommets, having grown up with skateboard ramps in their backyards, were pad-free, going trick for trick and heckling the hell out of each other, attempting all manner of grabs and executing nearly 100 per cent of the time. “The surfers have commented that they have felt a bit more balanced and comfortable with things that they have previously had difficulty with, though obviously it’s still very early days,” says Walshe. “At the very least we’re having a lot of fun, which at the end of the day is important… pushing our team to try new things and enjoy new ways of training.” Training, indeed, that was immediately put into practice by towing athletes into waves with jetskis to transfer their skills from ramp to water. A video review during dinner one evening elicited a round of hoots from everyone present. Fitzgibbons was on screen and the Hawaiian surf coach Shane Beschen had just paused the footage, freezing Sally at the height of a forehand Indy grab – a move she tried again and again as she launched herself into the foam pit of the skateboard ramp. Female surfers are not known for their aerial repertoires. The tricks are almost non-existent in competition: something Fitzgibbons believes will change in a year or two. Smith, watching with the group, liked what he saw and turning to his budding fly-girl, offered up a serious compliment: “Hey, Sal. That was almost perfect.” Read more about what happened at Red Bull Project Air, and see photos of the athletes in action, at www.redbullsurfing.com
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Cape Action
Town
CallinG Driven by South Africa’s multicultural melting pot, there’s a genrebusting music scene in Cape Town that’s making a loud bleep on the world’s radar. These guys are pushing buttons that have switched on London’s clubbers and caused the usually stoic Karl Lagerfeld to raise a bushy grey eyebrow. One of them even inspired Nelson Mandela to try something new. Of course we all know Madiba loves a bit of a dance, but getting down to a little hip-hop was something no one had witnessed until Ready D dropped a couple of tracks. Along with this godfather of South African rap and hip-hop, four other Capetonians broadened The Red Bulletin’s musical education Words: Florian Obkircher Photography: Andy Hall
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Xander Ferreira (centre) and the core of his band, Gazelle, at the Rocking The Daisies Festival. The multi-media artist designs his costumes himself. He also choreographs his 16-strong orchestra
Gazelle Even Karl Lagerfeld is impressed by the Mobutustyle hats and 16-man African ensemble The dusty road near the Cloof Wine Estate is busy on this sunny October afternoon. Bare-chested guys in shades surge to a huge concert stage at its end. It’s festival season in South Africa and thousands of young people have answered the call of the Rocking The Daisies show. Without warning, the festithrong move to one side. A dust-cloud blooms as a grey Mercedes makes its way through the crowd. Three
extravagant figures exit: one has a golden mask in front of his face, another is wearing a ship’s captain’s get-up. The third wears a white jacket and a Mobutu-style leopardskin toque. Xander Ferreira and his comrades-in-arms, the members of the electropop band Gazelle, are immediately surrounded by photographers. Ferreira smiles. Mission complete. He’s a master at drawing attention to himself. Ferreira, 28, studied art in Cape Town and his latest major project is called ‘The Status Of Greatness’. As well as installations and music, it features a book written by Ferreira on dictators making icons of themselves. “I analyse the strategies of African politicians,” he explains. “Nobody, for example, had more posters made of himself than Mobutu [the president of Zaire]. There were millions of them. He had them plastered all over every village and town in Zaire, which brought
him publicity and power.” Ferreira now uses the same strategies with Gazelle. Last year he was invited to the Art Basel art show. At the closing party, he showed up in dictator chic with two bodyguards and a case full of money he’d printed himself. On the notes was his own likeness. “It wasn’t just the fact that we stole the show from Karl Lagerfeld with our appearance,” he says. “Lagerfeld himself wanted to come and speak to us, as well as the TV stations.” The spotlight alone isn’t enough, however. Ferreira aspires to become the complete work of art, as if his appearance at Rocking The Daisies leaves any room for doubt. Gazelle takes to the stage with its 16man black ensemble: female singers, keyboard-players and percussionists who turn the electro-funk songs from the debut album Chic Afrique into an African orchestral work along the lines of Paul Simon’s Graceland.
Ferreira will soon be off to New York with fellow Gazelle member Nick Matthews. Rasmus Bille Bähncke, who produced Sting and Mary J Blige’s hit duet ‘Whenever I Say Your Name’, wants to record the band’s new album. Then it’ll probably just be a matter of time before Ferreira takes the world of pop by storm – he has laid the groundwork himself, after all. Name Xander Ferreira Style electro funk First Steps Began his music career as a reggaesinger. Ferreira also works as a fashion photographer Current Album GAZelle: Chic Afrique Website www.myspace.com/ yogazelle
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Crosby (right) with protégé Al Capone JJ at the back of his house in Gugulethu. Crosby is currently producing his new dancehall album, which will appear on German label MKZWO
Crosby Crosby is a big hit on the European dancehall scene, yet he remains loyal to his township The grey plaster is crumbling away from the house and a decaying wooden door leans against the concrete wall that surrounds a humble garden. Bricks are strewn all around. A tyre lies discarded on the corrugated-iron roof. The address is 1, NY 9 St NY stands for ‘native yard’ – a name left over from the apartheid regime. Crosby, who’s real name is Siyasanga Bolani, has lived in this house since he was born 60
and, despite having travelled around half of Europe with his music, he can’t imagine living anywhere other than here in Gugulethu, a township to the south-east of Cape Town. PC, mike, guitar, amps, speakers: the simple equipment the 27-year-old has arranged in his room. It’s a tight fit at 12m2 including the bed, but Crosby is happy. As he says, good music can flourish anywhere. “I began to soak up music as soon as I was born. My grandmother sang in a gospel choir and my mother is a sangoma – a shaman who works with traditional rhythms,” he explains. “My father taught me about Rastafarian culture. He used to organise huge street-parties on Sundays here in Gugulethu and DJ on his own sound system.” Crosby liked fiddling with the knobs as a child, his father told him. He started out professionally when still a teenager, using simple music software, which his label –
African Dope – provided him with. The same label took him along to MC at his first concerts outside South Africa in 2005. “It’s not easy being a musician in Cape Town,” Crosby laments. “People don’t buy records. Here people would say to me, ‘Hey, good song.’ But in Europe they’d say, ‘Hey, good song. Where can I buy your CD?’” Europe draws Crosby ever more these days. From Switzerland to Finland, he has shared stages with Busta Rhymes and Black Eyed Peas; travelled with Rita Marley and Gentleman on the Bob Marley Memorial Tour. Yet the success won’t make this 27-year-old world traveller consider relocating from his homeland. Crosby helps produce young talent in his studio and regards himself as something of a spokesperson, able to express the social complications of township life in his music. “The rate of unemployment here is very high,” he says.
“Gugulethu is only 12 miles outside Cape Town, but there’s hardly any public transport. And residents receive no unemployment benefit, so they can’t afford to drive or take a taxi to the city to look for work.” It’s just the tip of Gugulethu’s social ills, Crosby explains. He won’t be running out of subject matter any time soon.
Name Siyasanga Bolani Style Hip-hop, Reggae, Dancehall First Steps After high school talent show success, he remained loyal to the stage Current Album Various: Battle of Gugulethu Vol two Website www.myspace.com/ digianalogmusic
Drifting is a family affair. Ready D and his wife, who drives the same model of car, form the Cape Flat Drift Squad Team
Ready D Ready D is the best DJ in South Africa. Even Nelson Mandela has danced to his beats0 Yellow townhouses line the street and in the gardens with their twee ornamental windmills there’s not a soul brave enough to venture outdoors beneath the midday sun. A dog is barking in the distance; the splash of a sprinkler. Plumstead in southern Cape Town is a picture-book suburb. Until, that is, the deafening roar of an engine shatters the idyll. A sportscar appears, and at the wheel of the elaborately
decorated Nissan S13 sits Ready D, drift-car driver and DJ from Prophets of Da City, the legendary crew that put South Africa on the hip-hop map. Ready D, aka Deon Daniels, grew up in the township of Mitchell’s Plain. It was a place ruled by gangs and street violence. “The song ‘Rapper’s Delight’ by The Sugarhill Gang saved my life,” he offers. “Instead of joining a gang, I got into break-dancing. We created our own steps and integrated elements from traditional dances such as Pantsula and Jambu.” All styles that Michael Jackson would later pick up for his own dance moves. Inspired by political rappers like Public Enemy, Ready D founded Prophets of Da City in 1988, with three friends. They soon discovered their own, distinctly non-American, voice, and began to sample South African jazz records, and write tracks in Afrikaans, their mother tongue. This was political tubthumping and a verbal kick
in the balls to the apartheid regime, which promptly slapped a radio and TV ban on POC in 1992. “In one video we stuck a picture of then Prime Minister Botha in a fridge and rapped, ‘Chill out, homeboy,’” he explains with a grin. “Sometimes I’m surprised we’re still alive.” Yet as homeland censorship became ever stricter, so international interest burgeoned. POC were invited to the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland by Quincy Jones and their next album – Age Of Truth – is now considered the most important hip-hop to come out of South Africa. POC were invited to perform live at Nelson Mandela’s inauguration as South Africa’s first black president in 1994. It was an important moment in Ready D’s life. “Mandela liked it. Out of the corner of my eye I could see him jiving backstage.” Ready D, 41, now lives in Plumstead. He’s calmed down
a bit, he says, but certainly hasn’t retired. He supports young artists and makes a daily radio programme for Good Hope FM. Oh yes, and he drifts ’til his tyres can take no more. “Drifting has done for motorsport what hip-hop did for music: breathed fresh life into it. And more importantly still, it’s brought people together whose hearts beat as one for the same passion.” Name Deon Daniels Style Hip-hop First Steps Learned to DJ on a friend’s decks and was soon crowned South African DMC champion Current Album Brasse Vannie Kaap: Ysterbek Prophets of Da City: Ghetto Code Website www.myspace.com/ djreadyd1
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Roach at the headquarters of his African Dope label surrounded by promo-CDs, posters and piles of paper
ROACH Roach’s label makes him the leading exporter of South African electronic music “The personality of any metropolis is reflected in its music,” says Roach – a man who should know what he’s talking about, because the DJ and musician just happens to run South Africa’s biggest electronic label, African Dope. “Cape Town is a bass town, perhaps because it’s so spread out. Any track that’s recorded here has 10-15 Hertz more bass. We recently had a French band visiting us who were recording their 62
album here. Their sound engineer was appalled when they got home with the tapes. Too much bass, he claimed. Cape Town music has a powerful foundation. And it gets the girls dancing.” Roach, real name Hilton Roth, and his partner Fletcher established DJ duo Krushed ’n’ Sorted in 1997 and they were soon headlining the country’s main festivals with their mix of break-beats, dub and drum ’n’ bass. But there was limited interest from beyond South Africa’s borders. “Understandably so,” says Roach. “Why should anyone in the rest of the world be interested in two South African DJs playing records imported from England? So we decided to take matters into our own hands. At that point there were still no South African dub or breakbeat albums. So we got ourselves some equipment. And our first album was called Acid Made Me Do It, named after the cheap Acid
music software we were using at the time.” Roach swears that’s the only reason for giving the album that name. Even if the epic, hypnotic dub ’n’ bass tracks might arouse your suspicions that it was so named for other reasons. Local radio stations dismissed the album, saying that it wasn’t commercial enough. But acclaim from the international electronic scene, in particular from British breakbeat label Ninja Tune, came swiftly. And a promotional contract started bringing in money. “All of a sudden we had the funds to make CDs, set up a website and establish a label. Cape Town’s underground scene suddenly had a face.” Ten years later, Roach remains optimistic, despite the crisis hitting the music industry. Why so? Because he believes there’s still a lot more creative potential to tap in the country – a whole lot more. “I was in Johannesburg recently and I saw punks in
the townships. Black punks with chains from their ears to their noses wearing leather jackets and with green mohicans. BLK JKS is the first South African band in a long time to break through in the States. They’re a black, psychedelic rock group. Their album has opened doors for young township bands. I’m sure there’s plenty more excitement to come!”
Name Hilton Roth Style Hip-hop, Reggae, Dancehall First Steps Mixed his first album with partner Fletcher on a used computer with PC-speakers back in 2001 Current Album Various: Cape Of Good Dope 2 Website www.africandope.co.za
Markus Wormstorm in his kingdom. The odd sculptures the Capetonian finds in his local flea markets don’t just end up in his loft; they work their way into his short films too
markus wormstorm : fawned over by the London hipster crowd. Lives in a mental home “Sweat.X come straight from the future,” Vice magazine gushed recently. It’s an opinion shared by London’s Time Out magazine: “Sweat.X, a hyperactive electro act from Cape Town, have their finger on the pulse like no one else.” Markus Wormstorm brought Sweat.X to life with artist and rapper Spoek Mathambo about five years ago, through friendship and mutual fascination. The duo’s earliest tracks made their way to the
UK via music blogs, and from there they conquered Europe’s fashionable parties and hipster crowd. Their debut single ‘Ebonyivorytron’ came out in 2007, combining Wormstorm’s shuffled, scathing kuduroelectro beats with Mathambo’s galloping, enigmatic rap. Club music like a high-voltage current, a sound the nu-raver craves like his next pill. Markus Wormstorm, 27, who’s surname is really Smit, takes the wave of hype his work has unleashed in Europe in his stride. Relaxing in a hammock in his loft in the leafy Cape Town suburb of Pinelands, he smiles when the subject of his success is raised. “Of course I’m very happy about it. But Sweat.X is just one of the things I’m working on. I’m currently working hard on a series of short films with a couple of friends. We’ve christened ourselves The Black Heart Gang.” The trio’s latest work, The Tale of How, is an animated, surreal experiment in
iconoclasm. It’s like Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride with Hieronymus Bosch’s monstrous figures playing the lead roles. The soundtrack is a haunting, four-minute opera penned by Wormstorm. The short has been shown at festivals from Norwich to San Francisco, winning 18 prizes. Inspiration and creative energy come from within Wormstorm’s own four walls. His house is a former mental home and it feels a bit like a chamber of curios, thanks to his soft spot for flea markets. African sculptures, yellowing portraits and colonial kitsch gather in a room lit by lamps with stuffed gazelle legs for stands. An antique typewriter sits atop a colonial-era trunk. Wormstorm’s next trick will be music for The Black Heart Gang’s next film at the Red Bull Studio in Cape Town. Meantime he’s recording Sweat.X’s debut album in Johannesburg, “with a children’s gospel choir”, he adds with a grin. By the time
that’s released, his manager will have asked him once again to move to Berlin. It would make promotion easier, but Wormstorm already knows what he’ll say: “Not for anything in the world. I’m a Boer through-and-through and there’s nowhere I feel as at home as in Cape Town.”
Name Markus Smit Style House, Electro, Experimental First Steps Had his first band at 15, named after the class swot. Mixed electronic noise with guitar and drums Current Album Sweat.X: I’m That Alley Website www.myspace.com/ markuswormstorm
You can find further information and news about the artists at redbullstudioscapetown. wordpress.com
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The Roaring 40s World-class sailors, some of the fastest boats known to man and the occasional spectacular wipeout. Welcome to the new series that redefines the sport of sailing By Andreas Tzortzis Photography: Jonathan Glynn-Smith
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en.redbulletin.com/print2.0 To get the wind in your sails
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Crews control: the Red Bull crew ‘flying a hull’, reaching speeds of up to 56kph, as they finish up at late afternoon practice off the Omani coast
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he lead is sizeable, but still uncomfortable. White caps frost the water off the Omani coast as 37kph winds push Red Bull’s Extreme 40 downwind towards the final marker. Scything through the chop, the catamaran passes 10m away from a breakwater crowded with Sultanate officials in dishdashas and wraparound sunglasses. The expat kids in shorts and T-shirts clamber over rocks to watch. The wind howls, and only snatches of live commentary crackling through the Tannoy on land reach skipper Roman Hagara and his crew of three. Behind The Red Bull Extreme Sailing Team, the remaining fleet of five are circling the last marker and bearing down, reaching speeds of more than 48kph. A rounding of the final racing buoy and an upwind finish, and Red Bull will have won its third race of the day, all but assuring the team first place on the last stop of the Extreme Sailing Series in Asia. There are a number of inflatable dinghies with powerful outboards bobbing around. Red Bull’s Andrew MacPherson, a crew alternate and coach, sits on one and observes the proceedings through his Oakley sunglasses. “Good speed,” says the wry Australian. “Now get that sail in.” Crewmen David Vera and Gabriele Olivo crouch on the black mesh trampoline that spans the two hulls, pulling in the spinnaker. Hagara begins a turn, and the boat pitches suddenly and violently. The Austrian double Olympic gold medallist glances up with a sickly feeling. A sliver of the spinnaker, the size of two bedsheets tied together, is still unfurled and flapping aggressively in the wind. Instead of catching just two sails, the powerful winds catch three with a power that drives the bow underwater and the stern up in the air. It’s too late to recover. The 1000kg boat begins to pitch slowly. Vera hangs 66
onto the mesh as the boat capsizes, before dropping into the water. Olivo balances himself on the now perpendicular mast. Tactician HansPeter Steinacher, Hagara’s gold medal winning partner of 13 years, locks his fingers into the mesh and holds on. Hagara himself balances on the top hull before a wave dislodges him and he falls 6m to the water. His left arm catches on the rudder, his ankle bangs against the bottom hull before he slips in. Six motor dinghies race to their aid from all directions. The crowd lets out a collective gasp. Along the nearby beach, Omanis playing sand football and lounging to house music from a mobile DJ truck stop and stare. They might not yet know much about the rules of sailing. But they know spectacular when they see it.
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or a growing racing series featuring some of the world’s fastest sailboats, the day couldn’t have been scripted better. With a pledge to bring the sometimes lofty sport to the masses, the Extreme Sailing Series’ mandate is the sensational. Everything – from the running, colourful two-man commentary on shore, to the quick 15-minute races, to the atypically colourful mainsails flown by the fleet – is designed to put on a show. And a capsize or two – the series has seen 10 in its four-year history – is greeted by the sort of suppressed giddiness that accompanies crunching body checks in hockey, or spectacular pile-ups on the NASCAR circuit. When the Red Bull crew limped back into the marina an hour’s drive west of Muscat, they were greeted by a decidedly animated Dan Koene, one of the creators of the Extreme 40 class. “Hey, that’s the game!” said Koene, orange linen trousers flapping in the still stiff breeze. “It was a great show… That’s the way you need to look at it!” The reaction was muted as Steinacher, Olivo, Vera and MacPherson mulled over the problem of how to repair a mast, and a small cut on the hull from the bow of an Oman Sail boat that motored to their aid. Koene turned to a nearby journalist. “Were you not on the boat when it capsized?” he asked. “No? Shit, man! That would’ve been good.” It was the brash Dutchmen and his partners Mitch Booth and Herbert Dercksen who first hatched the idea of creating a catamaran double the size of the existing Tornado class of racing boat. Using the same sort of autoclave employed
New horizons (clockwise): A mix of Omanis and westerners gather to watch the action out on the waves; onboard the Red Bull catamaran; righting the vessel after capsizing
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Action
we had a great first day. meaning we had a full crash on the start line to mould Formula One car bodies, the three, together with sailor and designer Yves Loday, built the first Extreme 40 five years ago. A day after coming out of the factory, six boats were on the water for a new racing event in front of a crowd for a stage of the Volvo Ocean Race in 2005. “We had a great first day,” says Koene. “Meaning we had a full crash on the start line and one boat sank within a few seconds. People loved it!” Extreme sailing is the sport boiled down to its most basic. Races, of which there are about six to eight a day, last no longer than 15 minutes and are held on simple race courses as close as possible to the shore. The 12m) catamarans are dynamic carbon-fibre speed machines, perfect for duelling in close quarters and sturdy enough to take a lot of abuse. In 45kph winds, they can reach speeds of 65kph. Since launching in Europe in 2006, the series has drawn tens of thousands of spectators. One event in Kiel during the northern German town’s annual sail week last year drew 80,000 over three days. The season-ending race in Almeria, Spain, came close to matching that number. Organisers OC Events are hoping to top those numbers when they revisit Almeria and Kiel again this summer, two of the stops on the sixcountry racing tour that begins on May 27 (see next page for more info). The parallels to Formula One are unavoidable, even if they make series director Mark Turner a bit uncomfortable. “We’re still a very small thing compared to full-on motorsport,” says Turner, director of OC Events. “However, if you like, F1 is simple. They’ve got a track. They’ve got crashes. They go faster than people normally go in a car, in the same way we go faster than people normally go in a sailboat… We’re trying to do the same thing, we’re trying to entertain. And that’s an important differentiation to the rest of sailing. We’re trying to entertain using sailing.” There is a bit of added value, however, that Ecclestone & Co would die for. Each boat is built to accommodate a fifth crew member, always a non sailor and typically someone from the media, a sponsor or a guest of the series. Outfitted in a helmet, life vest and yellow 68
Give Precision a us c atwave: ion and fast-thinking are needed for these races and the catamarans are often in extremely close proximity to each other
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Boom time: (clockwise from above) Red Bull crew at work; extreme skill is needed to manoeuvre the catamarans during races; Hagara puts on a brave face after his injury; the aftermath of Red Bull’s dramatic capsize
action jersey, the ‘fifth man’ clambers around the netting during races, trying desperately to stay out of the way of the team, lurking lines and random, swinging pieces of carbon-fibre. “The way we were used to it earlier, with the Olympic sailing, you sail out and then come back at some point in the afternoon and there are a few spectators,” says Hagara. “Here, it’s the other way around... It’s something truly special that we’ve never had. It’s a welcome change to have people on the boat.” It’s hard to reconcile those last words, spoken in the calm of a pre-race chat under the thin fingers of palm fronds stirring lazily in the wind, with the shouted commands heard on board later in the blistering intensity of racing. The furthest thing from a leisurely sail, the fifth man experience demands a focus and agility almost as demanding as the crews’ themselves. The trampoline netting digs deep into your knees, but also helps you bounce from one side of the boat to the other, as you keep your eyes out for whipping lines and the formidable knees of the broadchested giants who are responsible for the bow work. The atmosphere is tense as eyes scan around for other boats or problems with the rigging. The most the fifth man is able to contribute is weight – important when the boats ‘fly a hull’ on upwind legs as well as for balance when the Extreme 40s churn around buoys and head downwind. Amid the flurry of hoisting and sail tightening occupying Olivo, Vera and Steinacher, the typically quiet Hagara transforms from a vision of deceptive calm to loud animation, the fifth man often bearing the brunt of his intensity. “Number 5… baaaaack!” he yells in hoarse, Austrian-accented English. “You don’t know what back is?”
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peed has been an obsession of the 43-year-old Austrian since he first began sailing on the Neusiedler Lake near Vienna when he was 14. Upon cresting the hill that afforded him a look at the lake for the first time on the weekends, Hagara would let out a shout if the wind was whipping up whitecaps. When the horn sounded warning of high winds, Hagara and his friends jumped on their 5mHobie catamarans and sailed out while everyone else was coming in. “It’s the most interesting sailing,” says Hagara. “When I went back to monohulls I had the feeling that, even when I was
sailing, I was staying in one place.” With catamarans “you have little time to look ahead, you have to make decisions quickly”. In 1997, he met Steinacher, then 29, a talented athlete who had started in ski racing before switching from the slopes to the water. Their partnership would result in two gold medals in the fiercely competitive Tornado class at the Olympics in Sydney and then Athens. Steinacher’s strength and agility combined well with Hagara’s light touch on the tiller and ability to focus over long periods of time. After 13 years together, their communication is wordless, Steinacher anticipating the things that need getting done before Hagara can voice them. The subtle art is necessary on boats where decisions need to be made quickly and under extreme pressure. Spaniard Vera and Italian
WHERE & WHEN Beginning on May 27, the fourth annual Extreme Sailing Series Europe will launch in Sète, France. From the southern French coast, the boats – specially designed to break down to fit in a standard shipping container – will visit five European countries.
Sète, France May 27-30 Cowes, England July 31August 7 Kiel, Germany August 26-29 Trapani, Italy September 23-26 Almeria, Spain October 9-12
Olivo, both veterans of America’s Cup campaigns, complement the Austrians with grit and muscle, and the boat is a babel of Spanish and German – with the occasional directive shouted in English. The three Asia stops mark Red Bull’s first entry into the series. And despite the fact that Olivo had just joined the team, after missing out on Singapore and Hong Kong, the choreography on the trampoline is well developed. Though seeing the series as little more than a chance to get used to the boats and the races, Red Bull is leading after three days of sailing in Oman. The penultimate day is a chance to cement their position atop the leader board, throwing a wrench into the two Omansponsored sailboats’ plan to win in front of the hometown crowd. The perpetual sun hangs in the sky and not a hint of a breeze stirs colourful flags hoisted along Al Hail beach, where
a beach football tournament and breakdancing event is scheduled. At The Wave, the unfinished residential development serving as series headquarters, foreign workers in blue jumpsuits arrive at the construction site early in chartered white buses. The din of their drills provides the acoustical accompaniment to the sailors unwrapping sail covers in the marina. The wind picks up quickly over the course of the morning. By race time, director Gilles Chiorri calls for the fleet to shorten the mainsails, reducing the sail area. Officials have also forbidden the fifth man in the 20+ knot winds, and the crew wear life jackets for the first time. The racing is furious and fast. Hulls fly and knife through the choppy water, and boats tack within metres of one another. After a last-place in the first race, Hagara and crew have notched up two wins ahead of the fleet before dropping to last in the fourth race. The conditions make for breathtaking racing for fans, but there’s tension on the boat. “They’ll go till someone dies,” says MacPherson, drily, and manoeuvres his boat to the edge of the race course. Over his radio, the start sequence begins to a race Red Bull won’t finish.
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n a rustic but sterilised operating room at the Khoula Hospital 45 minutes from The Wave, two doctors attend to a gash just below Hagara’s wrist that requires 14 stitches. The typically genial Austrian’s face is wan as he walks out of the small emergency room, his wrist hanging limply in a sling. “The conditions were fine,” he says on the car ride home. “There’s not much more you can do. I made a mistake.” In the back seat, team manager Mario Schoby’s phone is ringing off the hook. He fields interview requests, occasionally relaying questions to Hagara. Everyone wants a word with the skipper. Everyone wants to see the pictures. The ‘little man’, as his crew call him, grimaces as the painkillers begin to wear off. The capsize has ruined the team’s chances of victory on the last stop of the Asia tour. “We said we’re looking at the Asia series as a type of training, to learn to work together as a crew,” says Hagara. “But in the end you want to win.” In May, Hagara will once again helm the Extreme 40 as the European series kicks off. The results should be different – and ideally a little less spectacular. Go to enredbulletin.com/Print2.0 to view the boat. For more on the Extreme Sailing Series in Asia, visit www.redbull.com
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Action
bout
of africa A hundred times older than the grizzliest village elder and a hundred times tougher than life in the bush, man-on-man fighting in Gambia and Senegal, West Africa, is brutal, atavistic combat. A contest without limits, fighters can win by any means that meets with the crowd’s approval Photography: Philipp Horak
OPENING ROUNDS
Philipp Horak took the photographs for this report while working as stills photographer on the film7915 km, directed by Nicholas Geyrhalter additional information: Paul FAye
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It’s known as ‘laamb’ or ‘lutte africaine’ in French, and it’s a national sport all over West Africa. Ancient, brutal, yet more popular even than football, it has existed since the times of the greatgreat-great-great-grandfathers, according to Senegalese oral tradition, although there’s no fixed date of origin. In times past, wrestling took place during village celebrations once the rainy season and the harvest were over. Amid a festival atmosphere of dance, music and feasting, wrestlers represented their village or family and battled to bring fame and honour through victory. Their feats of physicality and courage made wrestlers feted heroes – the Premier League football stars of their day – capable of drawing crowds from village squares into stadiums. Now woven tight into West African social fabric, laamb contests are held several times each year, with prize money on offer for the winners. Lutte africaine is even taught in schools as part of the sports curriculum.
Action
GET IN THE RING The wrestling itself is rarely the most imposing aspect of laamb; it often doesn’t last very long. Before the sportsmen do battle, they march into the arena one behind the other to the adulation of friends and acquaintances along for the journey. Every wrestler is supported by a large team of advisers, most often of spiritual bent, bards, maybe, or marabouts. The latter – a clan unique to African Muslims – are miracle-healing wise men, consulted by believers on matters of worldly import. Acts of faith continue for the wrestlers with a pre-fight ritual of spraying themselves with magic water, and the conjuring up of charms through song and dancing. They wear any number of grigris – talismans – all over their bodies: metal chains, feather arm- and ankle-bands, leather bands with little sacks attached. The sacks contain secret mixtures of herbs and other supposedly fortifying ingredients prepared by the marabouts. No wrestler will fight without them and they provide the perfect excuse for the vanquished warrior: a losing wrestler will be swift to hail the superior witchcraft of the opposition’s marabout, rather than dwell on his own pugilistic inadequacy.
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ALL OVER BAR THE SHOUTING There’s further myth and incantation in the build-up, as wrestlers are expected to scream at each other prior to the bout, in a highly vocalised riff on the eyeballto-eyeball stare-out familiar to any fan of contemporary boxing. As for the fight itself… well, anything goes. It doesn’t matter how an opponent is brought to ground, so long as he is. Even punches to the face are allowed. Three judges observe the tussle, before declaring a winner and they normally don’t have too long to wait as the lack of rules allows one wrestler to prevail swiftly. A bout is over as soon as either fighter’s head, buttocks or back hits the floor, although the debates over the final decision often rival the intensity of the fight itself. But once there’s a clear winner, the crowd will gather in the arena to celebrate victory with the new champion. He’ll be carried jubilantly around the stadium, while the loser exits swiftly, stage left.
The crowd don’t wait long for a winner The lack of rules means one wrestler quickly prevails
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successful fighters are heroes Adored by the countries’ youth like pop stars
MUSCLE MUSEUM The wrestlers wear only a light loincloth or short trunks; their impressive musculatures are clear for all to see, reminiscent of their ancient Greek and Roman gladiator forbears. They’re aware of the mesmerising effect of their physiques during every second of combat, making them true heroes of West African sport, feted with the iconography of advertising. Wrestling’s fan base crosses age and sex boundaries; the following is huge and genuinely enthusiastic –
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not unlike the mass hero worship accorded sumo in Japan, or the Swiss schwingen. And they’re every bit as popular with the countries’ youth as pop stars. But these beasts can’t continue fighting forever, however strong they may be. At the end of their battling days, many go into semiretirement, becoming marabouts and gurus to the general population, such is the enduring mystique of their physical prowess.
Photography: Predrag Vuckovic/red Bull Photofiles
X marks the spot: Stunning locations, like London’s Battersea Power Station where last year’s finale took place. are a key part of Red Bull X-Fighters. See what’s in store for 2010 on page 84
More Body&Mind What to see, where to go and what to listen to
80 hangar-7 interview 82 get the gear 84 red bull x-fighters preview 86 listings 90 nightlife 96 short story 98 mind’s eye
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Hangar-7 Interview
Gary Hunt Don’t be fooled by his quietly spoken, laid-back manner, he’s an adrenalin-hungry world-class cliff diver who’s made a career out of performing mid-air acrobatics from a height of amost 30m There’s more to Gary Hunt than meets the eye. As well as being one of the best cliff divers on the planet, he’s also a French-speaking, ball-juggling criminologist. A tricky man to catch hold of then, but on the eve of this year’s Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, The Red Bulletin spotted a gap in Hunt’s hectic international schedule and sat down with this son of Southampton in Hangar-7 to break bread.
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On the title hunt: After coming a close second to Colombian cliff-diving superstar Orlando Duque in last year’s Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, Hunt now has the top spot in his sights
That sounds pretty terrifying. You’re obviously fairly fearless… No, I always get nervous before diving. And it’s all about the Speedos. Sometimes I walk to the edge of a platform before diving starts just to suss it out, wearing my clothes, and get really scared that I’ll slip or fall off the side. But when I’m in my Speedos I feel completely capable. It’s a very weird thing. So what do you do to keep calm before a big dive? I think about high dives a lot, especially new dives, I’m constantly going through them in my head to make sure I know what to do, but when it comes closer to the competition it’s too much – if I don’t know what to do by then it’s too late, so I need to switch off. I worked at a diving show in Metz, France, last year, and there were two American divers who were great jugglers. During the week
they’d go to Paris, put a hat down and busk. I just started getting into it and they taught me some tricks. Then, when I took my juggling balls with me to competitions, I found it was the perfect thing to do when there’s a wait. I don’t like to be sat there thinking about my dives and getting worried, and it’s a good way to relax. You’re tucking into a knuckle of pork – how’s it going down? It’s really nice. The béarnaise sauce is excellent. I still don’t really know what part of the pig this is from. I know pigs don’t have knuckles… [RB ventures that it’s the knee.] That sounds about right. Well it tastes great anyway. How are your culinary skills? I wouldn’t say I’m a good cook, but I’ve started to branch out and try some things. I cooked a Sunday roast recently for the first time. I did roast
Words: Ruth Morgan. Photography: Helge Kirchberger
RED BULLETIN: You’ve only got a couple of months before the start of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. You came an incredibly close second to Orlando Duque last year, how do you rate your chances in 2010? GARY HUNT: I’d like to think this is my year. It’s the first time I’ve gone into it thinking like that, but winning the championship is definitely on my mind. In the end, Orlando was more consistent, but this year anything is possible. The final is going to be in the sport’s birthplace, Hawaii, which will be amazing. Have you got any new tricks up your sleeve? I want to try and use a run-up instead of starting from a standing position. In 10m diving, the divers run, land on the end of the board and then go into the somersault, which gives you lots more momentum, so you can potentially fit more in. Last year I did a forward quadruple somersault with one-and-ahalf twists, and I want to add another twist. I can’t practise it from the full 27.5m height beforehand, so I’ll do it for the first time on the day. If I don’t land exactly on the end of the board, then, well, it could be a YouTube classic in the making.
Photography: Craig Kolesky
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chicken, roast potatoes, parsnips, Yorkshire pudding, the whole lot, but it was a bit hectic towards the end, I didn’t enjoy that. And I forgot to make the stuffing. Schoolboy error. I do love a pudding, I have a sweet tooth or two. From this year, being in France, I’ve started to love crème brulée. That’s now one of my favourites. I haven’t tried to make it yet – it’s next on my list of culinary experiments. Do you watch what you eat? Appearing in just a pair of Speedos must be good motivation to stay trim… I’ve always been slim. I’ve had stages where I’ve changed what I eat and I just stay the same. I tried to put on weight a couple of years ago, changed totally what I ate, had those muscle shakes and all that, and it changed nothing! So I just eat what I feel like eating now. Do you find being able to drop the ‘cliff diver’ job title into conversation helps you with the ladies? Being able to say you’re a cliff diver certainly helps spark up conversation. Most of them have never heard of it before and are pretty shocked, so there’s a lot to talk about. They’re usually pretty interested in what I have to say about it. So you’ve mastered the art of the chat-up line? I wouldn’t say that. I’m happy speaking to women though, which isn’t surprising growing up with two older sisters and my mum. I got forced into watching a lot of cheesy films when I was younger: Pretty Woman, Dirty Dancing, The Sound of Music, cor dear. And the women’s influence didn’t stop there. I used to do tap dancing, ballet dancing, gymnastics. It was something I kept a secret for a long time, but it’s actually really helped with what I do now. So what does the future hold? Well I want to keep pushing the limits of the sport, add new elements, increase the difficulty of my dives. But generally I have no idea. For example, I started at university studying maths, then switched to Sports Science as I love sport, but realised I don’t like reading about it! Then I tried Criminology as it intrigued me. I don’t know what I’ll do with it though – I don’t have a particularly strong ambition to go into Scotland Yard any time soon. My latest thing is learning French as I hate being the only diver on the tour who only speaks one language, so you can see I change my mind a lot. I just take life as it comes. That seems to be working for me so far. Find out more about Gary Hunt and the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series at www.redbull.com
Catch of the day: Fishing for crayfish and barbecuing them right there on the beach is the South African way, as David Higgs is only too happy to demonstrate
A question of taste
David Higgs On this head chef’s menu, South Africa meets France, classic meets modern. Just don’t ask him to join you for the soup course… The one ingredient he can’t do without is… “Salt!” says the man who, in doublequick time, has turned Rust en Vrede, located on the Stellenbosch vineyard of the same name, into one of South Africa’s best eateries. Higgs’s cooking style is defiantly classical and very French, but also uncomplicated and modern. He dabbled in molecular cooking, but it didn’t pique his interest; he’d much rather look for unusual food combinations, like crayfish and pork belly, for example. Then there’s the salt thing: Higgs has been interested in salt
for 10 years and uses several different types, from volcanic to Maldon sea to smoked, in order to have a wide selection of flavour-carriers for his dishes. The one thing he’d happily never eat again is… “Tomato soup.” Two sticking points: its consistency and serving temperature. The thing is, Higgs is very much a fan of actual tomatoes, and they’re an important ingredient in his cooking. The most important item of equipment in his kitchen is… “It has to be a charcoal grill,” says Higgs, which is hardly surprising, given his country of origin. South Africans like to braai whenever and wherever possible. And for Higgs, the smell and taste of barbecue cooking is a potent reminder of his childhood. David Higgs is this month’s guest chef at the Ikarus Restaurant in Hangar-7, Salzburg. Find out more at www.hangar-7.com
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Get the Gear
Roman Hagara: My Sailing Essentials The double Olympic champion is now taking on the tough challenges of the Extreme Sailing Series (see page 64). Here’s the equipment that makes his life easier
Camaro Classic Lifesaver www.camaro.at
Omega Seamaster Racing Chronometer www.omegawatches.com “I’ve always had an Omega, because it’s one of the few companies that makes sailing-specific watches. Races have start sequences in five-minute sections, so you can just set up this watch and click.”
Oakley Custom Jawbone www.oakley.com
Sail Racing 120 L Bag www.sailracing.com
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Words: Paul Wilson, andreas Tzortzis. Photography: Will thom (8), mark teo/red bull photofiles (1), Webasto (1)
Roman Hagara
“We used to have specially made Camaro life jackets that gave us a lot of freedom, but now we’re required to have more inflation. You don’t want too much, though: in the water, you have to be able to dive down, to get out from underneath the sail or out of the way of another catamaran that’s coming at you.”
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Sail Racing 50 KTS Orca Jacket www.sailracing.com “In catamaran sailing, you’re sailing long distances and you’re working the entire time, so it’s important that clothing allows you to move. Gore-Tex allows you to breathe, so that you don’t heat up and collapse.”
Leatherman Wave www.leatherman.com “I’m always using this: pulling something tight, cutting something. It’s really important if you’ve capsized and you’re caught under the main sail or trampoline and you have to cut yourself free – as happened to me. That’s why it’s crucial to have a knife on you, but this also has scissors and all the sailing tools.”
Sail Racing X-Loader Messenger 2 www.sailracing.com
Sail Racing 50 KTS Laptop Bag www.sailracing.com
Webasto Parking Heater www.webasto.com “We often train for hours in the cold and rain, and we want to warm up quickly back on dry land. With this remote system I can make sure my car’s warm when I come off the water.”
Watch Hagara and the Red Bull team in action at www.extremesailingseries.com
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FMX deluxe
Speed king: last year’s winner Nate ‘The Destroyer’ Adams will have to fight hard to retain his title
Laurels wither fast. Come April 16, none of Nate ‘The Destroyer’ Adams’ rivals will give two hoots that he took the overall Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour victory at a packed-out Battersea Power Station last autumn. Because that’s the day when the world’s most spectacular freestyle motocross series starts to fashion a new champion. Unlike previous years, when Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour was an invitational event, this year the six best riders from last season have automatically qualified for every race. Then, at each of the six tour stops, a further six riders, defined by their place in world tour, will tussle for four starting places. The final two slots are allocated on a wild-card basis. So we’ll be seeing Nate Adams (USA), Robbie Maddison (AUS), Mat Rebeaud (SUI), Eigo Sato (JAP), Dany Torres (ESP) and Levi Sherwood (NZL) all season long. In Mexico, which is the tour’s first stop, they will be challenged by Johan Nungaray (MEX), Blake ‘Bilko’ Williams (AUS), Andre Villa (NOR), Jeremy ‘Twitch’ Stenberg (USA), Mike Mason (USA), Charles Pages (FRA), Adam Jones (USA) and, most likely, Eigo Sato’s protégé Taka Higashino (JAP). As well as the new riders and the new system, in 2010 there will be three spectacular new stops on the tour: Egypt, with the pyramids as a dramatic backdrop in Giza; Red Square in Moscow; and the eternal city of Rome. With favourite X-Fighters host cities London and Madrid completing the line-up, this year’s competition promises to be the best ever. Get up to speed with Red Bull X-Fighters Tricktionary videos and buy tickets at www.redbullxfighters.com
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Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour 2010: The Stops 1 Mexico City, Mexico, April 16 2 Giza, Egypt, May 14 3 Moscow, Russia, June 26 4 Madrid, Spain, July 22/23 5 London, UK, August 14 6 Rome, Italy, October 1
Photography: Balazs Gardi/Red Bull Photography (1), Jörg Mitter/Red Bull Photofiles(1)
Fresh talent and incredible new locations are the order of the day as the 2010 Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour roars into action
kunde
more body & mind Philadelphia Phillies v Washington Nationals 12.04.10
hot SPOTS
The first home game for Jimmy Rollins (left) and former World Series champions the Phillies. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, USA
Fancy a day out? Here’s our pick of the world’s best sporting events Masters of Dirt 08 – 11.04.10 Some of the world’s best freestyle motocross riders offer a spectacular show of aerial acrobatics with jumps that will take them to the ceiling of the indoor arena. Citywest Convention Centre, Dublin, Ireland
Red Bull NordiX 09 – 10.04.10 Skicross meets cross-country skiing. Athletes from crosscountry, biathlon and Nordic combined disciplines compete in direct duels on a course dotted with waves, jumps and banked corners. Look out for Denmark’s Olympic gold medal winner Petter Northug. Davos, Switzerland
Vienna Air King 2010 10 – 11.04.10 Nearly 100,000 spectators turned up to see Austria’s biggest bike festival in 2009. The highlight of the event was undoubtedly the dirt jump, perhaps the first to take place in such an historic setting. Rathausplatz, Vienna, Austria
photography: Red Bull photofiles (4)
FIM World Enduro Championship 10 – 11.04.10 The enduro bikers start their season in the province of Huelva in Andalucia. Finnish rider Mika Ahola starts the defence of his World Cup title. Valverde del Camino, Spain
O’Neill Cold Water Classic 13 – 19.05.10 Cold water connoisseur Sam Lamiroy leads the charge into the icy seas off Scotland’s north shores, to battle top surf talent on the powerful reef breaks. Thurso, England
Boston Celtics – Milwaukee Bucks 14.04.10 Point guard Rajon Rondo and his Boston Celtics team enter the last game of the regular NBA season. TD Banknorth Garden, Boston, USA
Red Bull Ragnarok 15 – 18.04.10 Top snowkiters from around the world, including Guillaume Chastagnol, converge on the largest mountain plateau in Europe, the Norwegian Hardanger, to race against each other. Over the 12km course, the six finalists will each have spent more than three hours in the air – not easy work. Haugastøl, Norway
Red Bull Air Race Perth 17.04.10 After the now traditional season opener in Abu Dhabi, the pilots head for the Swan River in Perth. The last race held here two years ago was won by 2010 defending champion, Brit Paul Bonhomme. Perth, Australia
FIM Motocross World Championship 11.04.10
Red Bull Wake City 17.04.10
The second stop of the World Cup for the MX1 and MX2 classes will be held on Italy’s east coast as the competition heats up. Mantovo, Italy
Cable wakeboarders Brian Grubb and Adam Errington take to the open water and explore the rapids and waterfalls outside the US capital. Washington DC, USA
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Red Bull X-Fighters 16.04.10 Last year 17-year-old Levi Sherwood (above) surprised 43,000 enthusiastic fans with his well-deserved victory. Mexico City, Mexico
more body & mind wrc rally of turkey 16 – 18.04.10 After a year’s absence, the Rally of Turkey makes a welcome return. Sébastien Loeb (right) will be aiming for his 56th WRC career win. Antalya Kemer, Turkey
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 18.04.10 The Samsung Mobile 500 demands a total of 334 laps of its competitors. No easy feat when faced with a sea of cars all vying for that coveted win. Texas Motor Speedway, USA
Formula One Grand Prix of China 18.04.10 Last year, the Chinese Grand Prix meant a perfect weekend for Red Bull Racing. Sebastian Vettel started from pole position and at the end there was a double celebration when the German and his Australian team-mate Mark Webber took a well-deserved one-two. Shanghai, China
Desert Cup: Outback 18 – 28.04.10 Christian Schiester takes on his third extreme run in the Desert Cup series, along with 200 other participants from 35 other countries. Six 250km stages await them in Australia’s inhospitable outback, compete with impassable canyons and temperatures soaring to around 40 degrees. Desert Kimberley, Australia
FIVB Beach Volleyball Tour 19 – 25.04.10 The world’s best beach volleyballers take to the sand in the sport’s home country of Brazil. Last year, in both the men’s and women’s competitions, a home victory was taken by the Brazil natives Ricardo/Emanuel and Larissa/ Juliana, who will be hoping for a repeat of their success. Brazilia, Brazil
South African Enduro Championship 23 – 24.04.10 Multiple Supermoto and trials champion Brian Capper returns to enduro in the open class to saddle up for Red Bull KTM. Montague, Cape Town, South Africa
Red Bull BMX Park Tour Makkah 22 – 23.04.10 Senad Grosic (above) is growing BMX interest in the Arab region with shows in malls and universities. Makkah, Saudi Arabia
ASP World Tour 23.04 – 02.05.10 The third tour stop leads the world’s best boarders to the south of Brazil as defending champion Mick Fanning takes to the waves. Santa Catarina, Brazil
DTM hockenheim 25.04.10 At this year’s German Touring Car Masters, Swede Mattias Ekström and German Martin Tomczyk will be chasing the defending champion Timo Scheider. Naturally, Timo will be hunting further victory on his home tarmac. Hockenheim, Germany
Red Bull Street Style World Final 26 – 28.04.10 The crème de la crème of freestyle footballers were discovered through hardfought national tournaments. Now, the 55 winners from across the globe come together in Cape Town to determine who will be world champion. Cape Town, South Africa
Red Bull Camp Hester 01.05.10 Devin Hester of the Chicago Bears holds the NFL’s record for the most touchdown returns. The ‘Windy City Flyer’ now gives children at the American Football Camp an insight into his talent. Chicago, USA
Dirtopia 01 – 02.05.10 This is the oldest and biggest mountain bike festival in South Africa. More than 500 rookies and pros battle it out in crosscountry, gravity downhill, freeride, dirt jump, polo and trails disciplines. Greyton, Cape Town, South Africa
Red Bull Dirt Pipe 01 – 05.05.10 BMX dirtbikers Corey Bohan and Sergio Layos show their skills on the unique dirt halfpipe. It is also open for two days for amateurs to take part in a contest. Mt Beauty, Melbourne, Australia
Ryan Doyle in Slovakia 01 – 14.05.10 The freerunner invites any Slovak who thinks he has what it takes to join his workshop. The entrant with the most potential will become a wildcard entry into the Red Bull Art of Motion final in Vienna later this year. Bratislava, Slovakia
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more body & mind DJ Premier One of the earliest exponents of hip-hop, he’s spent much of his life in New York. He’s worked with the likes of Jay-Z and Christina Aguilera, but he’s not averse to playing The Smiths now and then, see page 94.
night spots
Clubbing, partying, music ... we’ve picked the best in the world for your after-dark entertainment Snowbombing 2010 06 – 10.04.10
Kicks n Canvas 09.04.10
For one week, the clocks in the Tyrol will be ticking to Greenwich Mean Time, when thousands of young Brits flood the mountains for the Snowbombing Festival. It’s all about the après-ski, with acts like Fatboy Slim, Skream and De La Soul warming up the party when darkness falls. Various venues, Mayrhofen, Austria
The worlds of hip-hop culture, art, fashion, music and dance collide for this project. Artists, sculptors, street artists and graffiti writers have all customised a pair of sneakers for the exhibition, and produced an original piece of art, too. DJs, MCs and breakdancers provide live entertainment. Zero Cool Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne, England
Hudson Mohawke 08.04.10
Photography: DJ Premier, Thomas Butler/REd Bull Music academy, Getty Images, Byblos
Along with his mate Flying Lotus, Mohawke is touted as a new-school visionary in electronic music. Part of the Wonky genre, his bumpy hip-hop is as rude as it is playful, earning him a place at legendary Warp Records. The Social, Paris, France
Ana Gog 08.04.10 The Dublin-based collective consists of five multiinstrumentalist musicians who met at music college and describe their sounds as experimental-electro-acousticrock. On stage this translates to an audio tour of emotions, with as many as 10 performers taking to the stage at one time. Twisted Pepper, Dublin, Ireland
Kode9 08.04.10 When Steve Goodman isn’t teaching students at the University of East London about sonic warfare, he becomes Kode9, travelling the world with his own brand of dubstep, which features new sounds with the deep, rumbling bass of the electronic genre. Festival Nemo, Paris
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Axel O Boman 09.04.10 Axel means shoulder in Swedish, but the Stockholm DJ could have been called rumpa (arse, in English) as that’s the body part he’s been moving since 1992. The Red Bull Music Academy participant has been shaking it across the globe, most noticeably to house anthem Purple Drank, released on DJ Koze’s label Pampa Records this year Purple Drank, Gothenburg, Sweden
The Mountain Goats 09.04.10 With new album Life of the World to Come, US songwriter John Darnielle and his fellow goats have channelled the Book of Books. Check out their melancholic indie band sound. San Francisco Bath House, Wellington, New Zealand
Caspa 09.04.10 Named after a questionable character in Larry Clark’s film Kids, the west London DJ and producer is a self-confessed hooligan. He’s a dubstep king and his remixing skills are in higher demand than ever. Redrum, Helsinki, Finland
Red Bull Music Academy 2010 For four weeks the musicians rocked the London clubbing scene, including Roller Disco at the Renaissance Rooms in Vauxhall, which continues every week even though the academy has left. See page 90.
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Deerhoof 20.4. 2010 This California band don’t pander to the mainstream. Their experimental rock noise is the antithesis of twee chart pop and overplayed indie riffs. See them on their world tour. Powiekszenie, Warsaw, Poland
Modeselektor 09.04.10
DJ Food 16.04.10
Nobody embodies the sound of Berlin at the moment as masterfully as this technotrained duo. The pair aren’t afraid to embrace new sounds, creating sets that are equally witty and serious. 02 ABC, Glasgow, Scotland
Strictly Kev, aka DJ food, found out early on that DJs need feeding too. He’s produced for a great many, along with members of the Cinematic Orchestra, Coldcut and the vinyl series Jazz Brakes, on which he sampled old jazz records and set them to hip-hop beats. La Coupole, Biel, Switzerland
Fabriclive 09.04.10 The Brits welcome Dutch drum ’n’ bass trio Noisia to the iconic London club to launch their new album. Breakbeat duo Stanton Warriors join DJ Zinc and his Crack House in room one, while drum ’n’ bass godfather Andy C keeps the boys company next door. Fabric, London, England
Meet at Town festival 11.04.10 The Auditorium Parco della Musica looks like a mix between the Sydney Opera House and the Death Star from Star Wars. The building will host fittingly futuristic electronic acts, including Junior Boys, Daedelus and Metro Area, Soap&Skin and Jimmy Edgar. Auditorium, Rome, Italy
MotoGP 11.04.10 The Losail circuit will light up for night-race action for an electric 2010 season. Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa will be looking to build on his solid third place in 2009 and take a step or two up the podium. Losail, Qatar
Erol Alkan 15.04.10 He brought Kylie together with New Order during the mash-up boom, he’s made his London club Trash big with bands such as the Klaxons, and today the iconic DJ likes to flirt with space disco sounds. The Parish, Austin, USA
Red Bull Soundclash 16.04.10 club Byblos Be tempted by a taste of honey – well, honey-flavoured schnapps downed in one – at this buzzing club in the heart of Porec, in Croatia, which features top-class DJs. Read more on page 93.
Two bands get into the ring. With microphones as their boxing gloves, they battle it out with covers, original songs, improvised jams and, with the audience as referee, there can only be one winner. Sasazu, Prague, Czech Republic
Maximilian Skiba 16.04.10 In 2000, clubbers craved minimal house and no dancefloor dramas. That’s until guys like Skiba searched flea markets for old treasures and gave them a makeover, courtesy of Nu-disco. 1500m2, Warsaw, Poland
Jori Hulkkonen 16.04.10 If the eardrum dared the retina to dance, the result might be something like the Sound:Frame festival in Vienna, where DJ and video jockeys are on an equal footing on stage. At the Red Bull Music Academy floor, techno veterans such as Hulkkonen and Patrick Pulsinger complement the Belgian visualistic Legoman. Ottakringer Brewery, Vienna, Austria
Coachella Festival 16 – 18.04.10 This festival is no kids’ picnic. During the days the thermometer soars to 38ºC in the California desert, while at night festivalgoers will be shivering in their sleeping bags. More power to the 25,000 fans, but it’s nothing when there’s a line-up including LCD Soundsystem, MGMT, Pavement, The XX and 2 Many DJs. Empire Polo Field, California, USA
Zinc 17.04.10 Never one for overused labels, the former drum ’n’ bass pioneer invented his own genre, Crack House. He can always guarantee a crowd with his dirty electro beats, and tonight there’s the added draw of Ms Dynamite at the microphone to perform the pair’s top 40 hit Wile Out. Unit, Tokyo, Japan
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Roll with it: Moodymann picked 1970s New York tracks to create the right retro vibe at the Red Bull Music Academy roller disco
Red Bull Music academy London
Green Room
A Hard Day’s Night The Red Bull Music Academy works its magic in the sound studios and in London’s clubs. Florian Obkircher reflects on a week where Skream, Moodymann and a guy in a turtle costume kept him from getting a good night’s sleep
London’s four best sound systems were going head to head at Camden’s Roundhouse. Warp Records and Ninja Tune battled it out in front of the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington with 3D sounds. Teri Gender Bender’s activist blues rock show, armpit hair and all, made even the hipsters from Vice magazine blush. The Red Bull Music Academy’s first term was the talk of the town, even in a city as sound-saturated as London. Following daily studio sessions, 30 young musicians from around the world rocked London’s clubs together with established mentors like Henrik Schwarz and James Pants. After two weeks, the travelling music school sought out new blood and invited 30 new participants for a second round at the end of March. The euphoria began again, for almost everyone concerned. Tuesday night, in front of Book Club in Shoreditch, 90
a queue outside the small, subterranean club grew as Sebastian Szary massaged his leg. “A terrible weekend,” the Berliner explained. After playing in Sicily with his electro-dubstep outfit Modeselektor, a pilots’ strike meant he had to drive the whole way from Paris – where he was due to change planes – to Berlin at the wheel of a hire car. “The journey took me almost 48 hours,” he revealed. Just 24 hours after that, the Red Bull Music Academy lecturer and his partner, Gernot Bronsert, were standing behind the decks at Book Club. The capacity crowd were buzzing with anticipation before a piercing synth-sound filled the space. It stopped suddenly, followed by a short silence before a burst of drums and bass transformed the static into the electric. The pair bounced around like rubber balls, clapping their hands. What about the pain
in his leg? “Actually, I’d forgotten all about it,” he said, giving a very satisfied smile. A night later, Skream, local hero and one of the founders of the dubstep genre, was planning something a little different at the CAMP Club. Instead of the dark bass tunes he usually plays, he outed himself on this night as something of a disco lover. “I got to know the good side of disco at the 2006 Red Bull Music Academy,” the Londoner explained after his set, which included classics like, ‘Let No Man Put Asunder’, his favourite disco track. “And it’s the most sampled track in jungle,” he adds. Disco also hit the right note the day after at the Rennaissance Rooms, where a sign on the door read ‘Please take off your shoes.’ For one night, the event space was transformed into London’s only roller disco, with hundreds queued up out front. And to be clear, we’re talking leg warmers
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Camo 17.04.10 As Austria’s top skateboarder and the country’s top drum ’n’ bass export, Reini Rietsch can’t complain about any shortage of talent. He has moved to the drum machine and has released tracks as Camo & Krooked on London’s finest labels ever since. Jungle Juice, Paris, France
Afro Picks @ SA Music Awards 17.04.10 Skream thinks ahead
Moodymann in action
Lee Kasumba’s fans describe her as the mother of South African hip-hop – no one is more connected in the African music scene than the radio and TV presenter. Along with her colleague DJ Kenzhero, she has organised the Afro Picks concert series, which offers new young talent a big break. Sun City, South Africa
Appleblim 17.04.10 The Londoner takes heavy bass, Afro percussion on Middle Eastern samples and fuses them with dubstep and techno beats to send a new sound to dancefloors on his label Apple Pips. Panorama Bar, Berlin, Germany
Test present Sandwell District 17.04.10
Photography: Thomas Butler/red bull music academy (4)
Music therapy: Modeselektor gets things started at the Book Club, Sebastian Szary (right) looks like he’s recovered from his aches and pains
and high-top lace-up skates, not bum bags and blades. Only one person had a good excuse for leaving his trainers on tonight: Moodymann, the Detroit house DJ responsible for keeping roller disco alive in the motor city. “Are you having a good time?” he asked as the crowd oohed. “Let’s show them how to really roll.” He got things going with a soulful number reminiscent of 1970s New York, the perfect soundtrack to a night of fun, dizziness and a bruise or two. But little war wounds like those were no excuse for missing the following two nights, when the Roundhouse in Camden was taken over by the Red Bull Music Academy. Together with Barcelona’s multi-media extravaganza the Sónar Festival, revellers were given a foretaste of what the electronic jet-set can expect under Catalan skies in June. While MF Doom, Four Tet and Laurent Garnier gave the former engine shed some
Although the techno label started out underground, it’s swiftly moving into the light. Though Laurent Garnier, Miss Kitten and Jeff Mills are among their devotees, the real test is on the dancefloor. Twisted Pepper, Dublin, Ireland
high-voltage electric shock treatment, the Red Bull Music Academy crowd presented a star attraction in the small cellar club. Mexican Indie poster-boy Juan Son slipped on a turtle costume, adding some owl make-up and white feather plaits. Glaswegian producer Hudson Mohawke peppered his limping beats with synth stardust. Canadian youngster Lunice got the crowd going with dizzyingly energetic hip-hop and stage antics that, we’re fairly sure, are going to make him into a YouTube star before too long. And we’re equally sure that the Red Bull Music Academy has accounted for a month of permanent bags under the eyes on the London club scene. But what else would any self-respecting party-goer expect? All DJ sets and live gigs from the 2010 Red Bull Music Academy in London are available on www.redbullmusicacademyradio.com
Ramadanman 17.04.10 Growing in a playground that includes Skream, Mala and Kode9, the youngster is in the London institute of deep bass research. His dubstep anthems open the door between deep house and drum ’n’ bass, his every sound like a strangely enjoyable punch to the stomach. Kavka, Antwerp, Belgium
Henrik Schwarz 17.04.10 His soulful tracks like Leave My Head Alone Brain link Schwarz’s house music to early forms of jazz and funk, as do his DJ compilations on which jazzy shorts such as Moondog move smoothly into epics such as Drexciya. Libertine Supersport, Brussels, Belgium
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Bonobo 23.04.10 British electronics engineer Simon Green is Bonobo who, with legendary label Ninja Tune at his side, weaves together computer synths, samples, guitars and drums. His is a down-tempo musical meal, garnished by the soulful lyrics of Andreya Triana singing live. Mezzanine, San Francisco, USA
World’s Best Clubs
A Byblical Experience What happens when you get too deep into the honey schnapps at Byblos? Iva Jagoda woke up to find her notebook filled with the following scribble
Dimlite 23.04.10
Byblos Porec
Dimitri Grimm’s grandfather was a composer, his father a multiinstrumentalist. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but when Dimlite creates his psychedelic soundscape, there is a world of difference in his chirping electronics and stumbling hip-hop beats. Homework Festival, Bologna, Italy
Horse Meat Disco 23.04.10 Since the release of their eponymous mix compilation, the DJ collective has been as hot as a fresh horse meatloaf. Nowhere more so than their hometown of London, where they still gather every Sunday evening at the Eagle London venue to do what they do best. Otto, Istanbul, Turkey
Bass hunters should head straight to Room 2 for the speaker-wobbling drum ’n’ bass of Dillinja. Those who prefer their beats broken will unite in Room 3, where London collective Bugz in the Attic bring their own take on house, techno and soul sounds. Fabric, London, England
Bang Face Weekender 23 – 25.04.10 The reunion of the British rave community: a weekend of dance under the auspices of yellow smiley faces. This year, between techno and jungle can be found electronica legends Luke Vibert, Matthew Herbert and Detroit house master Moodymann. Camber Sands, England
Drums of Death 24.04.10 A voodoo-zombie appearance certainly gets a guy noticed. And musical wavemaker Colin Bailey has the music to match, hurling out rough, energetic electronica that pulls no punches. The end result is akin to a Scottish Heath Ledger as The Joker rocking out on acid. Razzmatazz, Barcelona, Spain
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Air space: a potted palm paradise in the open air
You asked me when I started to drink? Well, it was just two years ago – two summers to be precise. My Zagreb friends and I decided that we should go somewhere for the weekend. Why not to the seaside, since all of us needed to get away from the daily routine. Porec, on the coast near the Italian border? Sounds good. Hey, Martin Solveig is going to be at one of the clubs there. So we went and then they told me there would be Medica, that honey-sweetened Istrian liqueur best taken care of in one, smooth shot. So I said, why the hell not. Losing control, normally my biggest fear, was at that point very low on the list of concerns. They told me a sip or two wouldn’t harm me. It didn’t… I was the one doing the damage. The bottle suffered. So did the dancefloor. Was Solveig really there? Hadn’t he just been burning down the house in Italy? But, then, Istria is just a few miles from Italy, and the right club can attract even the most sought-after DJ. Byblos, it seemed, was that kind of club. There were tons of people all around, spread across the club’s open-air space, filled with potted palms. The buzz was spectacular. I
asked a friend whether it was the Medica. But she said it was like this every night. Since she’d been there before, I asked her where the toilet was as well. But weren’t you asking me something? Aha, you were asking when I started to drink? Wait – you said where? In Porec. In Byblos, to be more precise. They say there is a great pool in the middle of the club. I just remember it being deep enough. Byblos, Zelena Laguna BB, 52440 Porec, Croatia. Tel +385 91 1133 221, www.byblos.hr
Photography: Byblos
FABRICLIVE 23.04.10
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“I was born in Manchester, and I get a bit pissed off when people refer to us as a Cheshire band [Doves formed in Wilmslow] because it’s like please man, we’re fuckin’ Manc! Behave yourself! “Doves started out as a dance-music band called Sub Sub. Aged 19 we put out
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Photography: Camera Press/Andy Cotterill, Getty images
Manchester music stalwarts, Doves, release a ‘best of’ album this week. Lead singer Jimi Goodwin tells Tom Hall it’s not just the landmarks that marked the band
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Space Face, our first white label release. Off the back of that, we were being put on the guest list for the Hacienda and we felt like that was all we ever wanted. Game over, our work is done! And that was really what it was all about for us. I’m not nostalgic, I’m not fond of looking back. These days people get nostalgic about last month. Whatever man, move on, make something new. “We always played instruments, but in the early 1990s, we were still trying to find that new thing. I guess in Manchester the DJ was king for a while. We’d go crate digging in The Spin Inn (1), Vinyl Exchange (2), and Eastern Bloc (3), which was owned by Martin Price from the band 808 State. But things have to fall. I’ve succumbed to the digital age and these days I buy vinyl online. “We owned a famous old studio called Out Of The Blue Studios and it burned down in the late 1990s. Loads of overdramatic horseshit’s been written about our band’s turbulent birth out of those ashes, but there was nothing glorious about it. When you’re faced with that sort of thing you just sort of laugh at it. We were pissing ourselves! “Manchester is still really important to our music. When I was about nine years old, I’d go to the Apollo (4) in Manchester to see The Clash and the Ramones with my dad and I’d be dreaming of what it’d be like to headline that place. When we were touring
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1 The Spin Inn 2 Vinyl Exchange The Last Broadcast album in 2002, doing two 3 Eastern Bloc nights at the Apollo in a row was something really special to us. There’s a great bar 4 door Manchester Apollo next called the Apsley Cottage Inn (5), a classic pre-gig hangout. Another proper 5 The Apsley boozer that’s been important in theCottage Doves story is the Britons Protection (6) opposite 6 The Briton's where the Hacienda once stood. We’d Protec have rambling, stoned and half-cut meetings with Rob Gretton, who co-founded the Hacienda and ran Rob’s Records, who used to put out Sub Sub. That was our sort of HQ really. Both of those are great Victorian pubs, still standing, and they’ve still not changed. “But life’s just as much about the more mundane places that hold personal memories as the well-known landmarks. Like the song ‘Northenden’ by Doves is just about that area [a suburb south of the Mersey River], born out of love and frustration with the place that you live. I’d go to Marie Louise Gardens in Didsbury and wander around trying to write lyrics. “We don’t have to go back into the studio and fulfill some kind of commitment after this ‘best of’. It’ll be nice to recharge – kind of like starting all over again really. A healthy, necessary change. Which for us has always been a good thing.” Doves new album The Places Between: The Best Of Doves is out on April 5. For tour info and videos visit www.doves.net
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On track: DJ Premier is a hip-hop legend
DJ Premier new york
On The Record
Premier League The DJ who helped define hip-hop music for the last two decades tells Tom Hall he sees no problem dropping in Jay-Z with The Smiths “Yeah this is DJ Premier. You can call me Primo. Or P-P-P-Premier,” laughs a gravelly voiced Brooklyn accent down an even more crackly transatlantic line. It’ll disconnect three times before our talk is through. Each time it does, DJ Premier aka Christopher Martin, aka one of hip-hop’s true bona fide architects, answers again and drops straight 94
back into conversation. After the disco- and electro-indebted birth of hip-hop during the late-1970s and 1980s, his use of grainy, soulful, jazzy samples over full, classic drum sounds totally defined east-coast rap in the 1990s. Iconic records like the back catalogue of his group Gang Starr, Notorious B.I.G’s Ready To Die, Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt and Nas’s Illmatic, consistently ranked as one of the most perfectly formed debut albums ever made, all bear Premier’s mark. True hip-hop, as he explains, is about understanding that legacy. RED BULLETIN: You’ve produced so many iconic beats. Do you have a favourite? DJ PREMIER: They’re all a chapter of my legacy, I don’t have one favourite. There’s so many that are emotional to me. The song we did on Gang Starr’s Moment Of Truth called ‘Next Time’ is one of my favourite songs because my accountant, a friend of mine, had just passed and Guru (Premier’s Gang Starr partner) knew I was depressed and he wrote that rhyme to that beat. On the other hand, ‘Mass Appeal’ was a spoof on how sing-songy your tracks have to sound to get
on radio and I did that just to make a joke and that became one of my biggest records. So what is it about hip-hop that keeps you coming back to the turntable? It’s a culture. You can’t play around with it. You can have fun with it, but you can’t misuse it. There’s a lot of people involved in hip-hop who are not members. They’re just so-called members. But they’ll never get it. Naming names? There’s so many ‘so-calleds’, man, I’d have to email you a list! I’m gonna be 44 years old next month. I was raised on the original soul and breaks records. There was no such thing as cutting and scratching yet. But I wasn’t even 11 years old and I could tell that this new music was amazing. Did that street culture directly influence your music? I’d go with my grandfather to watch B-Boys from Harlem breaking in Times Square. There was an area there we used to call the Deuce. It had all the porno movie theatres and karate flick theatres. It’s where Wu-Tang Clan got into their kung-fu craft real heavy. But all that memory has been wiped away because Mayor Giuliani
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Tokimonsta 24.04.10 Her hip-hop beats are as fresh as newly popped toast, and she has been winning acclaim around the world, from being signed to Flying Lotus’ label Brainfeeder to being championed on the airwaves in the UK by BBC Radio 1’s grand dame Mary Anne Hobbs. Graveyard Tavern, Atlanta, USA
Le Butcherettes 24.04.10
Main man: DJ Premier has produced Jay-Z, Jeru the Damaja, KRS-One, Christina Aguilera, Afu-Ra and Nas
Photography: Getty Images (2), Timothy Saccenti (1)
Two’s company: With rapper Guru (left), they moved to Brooklyn and founded the Legendary hip-hop duo Gang Starr
wanted to make way for the tourists. Many credit Rudolph Giuliani’s policies for changing the face of Times Square. It’s cool, but you take away the essence and the legacy of the city. I make sure the city stays gritty by making music sound like it comes from that place. You’ve worked with some pretty mainstream pop artists recently, people like Christina Aguilera and Kanye West. Does working in the mainstream damage ‘real’ hip-hop? Well, first of all, if you look at all of Kanye West’s output, he actually did a lot to bring back sampling and make it cool again, even though he’s more of a mainstream artist. But his new album is strictly hard beats and rhyme. He’s totally done with electro. You’re gonna be surprised what you hear. But secondly, the synthesiser has been a part of hip-hop right from the beginning anyway. The Cold Crush Brothers, who are one of the most legendary crews, made a record called ‘Punk Rock Rap’ in 1983, that’s just a classic synth record. And that’s the thing. We were into punk rock, new wave, The
Psychedelic Furs, Siouxsie and the Banshees. We were into The Smiths… Wait a minute. The Smiths, as in sensitive, bookish, British guitar rock? I like Smiths’ songs. ‘William It Was Really Nothing’ and ‘I Want The One I Can’t Have’. One of my favourites is ‘What Difference Does It Make’… that’s an ill song! That’s kind of surprising coming from the man who produced gritty hip-hop like Biggie’s ‘Ten Crack Commandments’… I just push for realness. If violence is necessary to mention in some situations then so be it. But I try to educate the youth all the time. They gotta carry the torch. So you gotta make sure you school them on what’s really poppin’ and how serious this shit is. It’ll come back to haunt you like anything else you did wrong. It comes out of how you living so you gotta come correct. Do you think with the rise of the MP3, there’s less dedication to the culture? Less dedication to vinyl digging? As long as they’re doing the research behind the MP3, I think it’s OK. It’s cool that you dig records from such diverse backgrounds. Like the xylophone loop on Nas’s ‘Represent’ is a beautiful sample. Where did that come from? You will have to figure that one out. Take another look! ... The phone cuts out again. And this time he doesn’t ring back. DJ Premier has a radio show on every Friday from 10pm until midnight EST on the Hip-Hop Nation channel at www.xmradio.com
It won’t take long for Teri Gender Bender to become a star, or so believes Mars Volta’s Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, who produced the debut album for her band. It’s a feeling shared by Jack White, who took them on tour. With live shows that include fake blood and the odd pig’s head, the Mexican garage punk band is nothing if not memorable. Foro Sol, Mexico City, Mexico
The Fast Forwards 27.04.10 Swedes with Britpop hairstyles who indulge in rough garage-rock: The Hives spring to mind. These newbies walk in their footsteps and are all the better for it. Blue Shell, Cologne, Germany
Fatima 29.04.10 The young Londoner is one of the great discoveries from Tony Nwachukwus’ talent Factory, the CDR night at London’s Plastic People club. Having already shared a stage with Hudson Mohawke, Benji B and Floating Point, it’s not a bad start to a career. Hoxton Bar & Grill, London, England
Vampire Weekend 29.04.10 White New York college boys with Ralph Lauren polo shirts, playing with Afro sounds. Sounds unpleasant, but somehow it’s not. The band aren’t going for superficial authenticity, and the casual indie quartet mix it up with their postpunk guitars and jagged drums. Bruce Mason Centre, Auckland, New Zealand
florence and the machine 02.05.10 After scoring a number one with debut album Lungs, and pulling off an unexpected collaboration with Dizzee Rascal at the Brit Awards, the London lass and her Machine are riding high in 2010. Olympia Theatre, Dublin, Ireland
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T
he month is February on that day when I look out my window, unaware that it’s the day when everything will change. I am in London, the Greater part of the city, which means small front gardens, net curtains and free parking. February is a funny time of year in England, nearly spring yet still the dark depths of winter. I feel worn out by the gloom and the grey and cold, and I long for a bit of spring excitement. Like the girl who I met on the street last week. She gave me her number, but when I called her she said, “I met your girlfriend.” Dull. I am a writer, so I’m adept at distorting the facts. People think that a good story must be true, but this is part of the sham. I peddle in lies. Life is boring if we stick to the truth. The phone rings. I am standing by the window. I am watching a car pull into next door’s drive. This is one of the things I do when I am stuck on a story, when the words are brimming up but not quite spilling over. I have the edge of the blind in my hand. I have single-handedly updated the art of curtain-twitching, perfected my technique, through trial and error, for maximum coverage (of me behind the blind) and optimum viewing (I can see almost all the way down the street). I look upon it as research. I keep a special notebook full of the details. Other people’s secrets. Like the couple at number 54. He had his bit on the side in when she was out at work. He’s always been an arsehole so I sent his wife an anonymous note. Of course she was shocked, but how could you be that stupid when the truth is right there for even your neighbours to see? When the phone rings I jump because I am watching a car pull in. Remember, I told you that before. But we’ll come back to that. I quickly let go of the blind, swing around and pick up the phone in one deft movement. “Hello?” I say. I sound polite, vaguely surprised, slightly annoyed, as if I have been disturbed in the middle of writing a paragraph so beautiful that it would make mass-murderers weep. But now, with the ringing of the phone, the moment is gone. “Hello” she says, “Did I disturb you?” “Oh,” I say, “It’s you.” Who else would it be, but I don’t say this, I imply it by upping my tone of surprise and annoyance. Really I should have been an actor. I think about this as she launches into a diatribe of her day. “Dan,” she says, “am I keeping you back?” Now if another woman asked you this question you’d know that she was
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A story by Siobhan Osborne
Neighbourhood Watch Wishing for a bit of excitement in your life might bring more than you bargained for
annoyed with you, that she was being sarcastic, that if you didn’t tune in right now you’d be in trouble. It’s like the flashing amber before the red. But not Sam, she means it just as she says it. This is the great thing about Sam, she’s not complicated. Dan and Sam, it’s as simple as that. It doesn’t bode well when there are two thinkers in a relationship. I learned this the hard way. And the trust, that’s always been an issue for me. Sam’s different. When I told her that I wanted to be a writer, that I felt hemmed in by my nine-to-five, that I needed to be free of the shackles of employment, she said: “OK then. Do it.” She took on another job, worked double shifts and all because she believes in me. No questions asked. She
even went and bought me a swanky laptop and a new desk. “It’s fine,” I say, like the martyr that I am. I move to the window with the phone in my hand. In the few minutes that I’ve turned my back, the day has gone. I pause with my hand on the blind, reach over and turn off the lamp. It’s dark in the room now too. I like this because I can see out but they can’t see in. With one simple flick of a switch the watcher becomes the watched. I do this quite a lot at the end of my day, sit by the window and watch. Sam is asking me what I would like for tea. This is what she calls dinner; it used to be charming. I am answering her but not paying attention. “I don’t suppose it matters,” she says, her voice sounds funny, then, “Dan we
illustration: james taylor
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need to talk.” I have flipped up the side of the blind and am watching the car next door. It’s been stationary for a while but there’s no sign of movement. I strain through the gloom, there is the shape of two large figures. As I watch one of them shifts. He is turning my way, he is looking at me. “Dan,” she says, “it’s important.” They couldn’t be looking at me. How could they see me? They couldn’t see me. Could they? I let go of the blind. I sit down. Sam is finishing the conversation on her own, there is a pause, she is waiting for me to say something. I tell her to hurry home. She likes it when I say this and then I hang up. I pull the chair up to the window and ease back the blind. Next door the car is flashing its lights. As it starts beeping its horn
the passenger door opens and the heavy bulk of a stocky man gets out. He appears to be heading my way. I watch as he strides over next door’s tiny hedge and into my garden. I drop the blind, push the chair back quickly with my feet. It screams across the polished wood. My whole body is frozen, my brain is numb. The thrill is exhilarating. I can see shadows moving outside in the garden. Instinctively I reach for the lamp, switch it on. No, what am I doing? I click it off. They have seen me, now they know where I am. I try to stay calm. I count to 10. The room is cold, getting colder. Sam will be home soon. Should I call the police? And say what? I leave the room, crawl to the door on my hands and knees. Outside I am sure they are laughing. The living room door creaks as I ease it open just enough to slide through. I sit on the floor in the hall. I wrap my arms around my legs and keep my back to the radiator. I stare at the front door. I can feel the draught edging under it, somehow it’s comforting. I stare through the tinted textured glass. My eyes burn as I peer for the shadows, for the outline of a hand moving towards it, ready to push through and grab. In the front room the phone rings again, it peels through the silence. What am I doing? The rings die and outside I can hear voices, normal voices, in fact I’m sure that one is that of a child. This is ridiculous. I run my fingers through my hair, feel the shape of my skull underneath. I smile, I even allow myself a little laugh. Why would anyone want to hurt me? I stand up, I dust myself off. I mean I physically rub my legs and arms. It feels good. Real. I push the door to the living room open. After all, it is my door, in my house and I stride into the room. There is a dark figure at the window. I freeze. My heart is beating so fast that it’s in my ears. His shape is so defined that he must be right against the glass. His hand goes up, he is peering in. He is talking to someone. Then there’s another shadow, just as big, just as hulking. I throw myself to the floor. Sam will be home soon, this is all I can think. But wait. I pull myself across the floor, as low and as still as I can. They are still talking, still peering, they cannot make me out. I reach, I can just about grab the phone. I dial the number. “Hello,” I say. “Hello?” I listen. Nothing. I look at the phone, I push the buttons. “Hello?” I say. Nothing. Not even a dial tone. They have heard me. They bang on the glass. Jesus Christ. Jesus. I am scuttling backwards on the floor. My arms and legs flaying like an
upended turtle. But I am not moving. My trainers squeak against the floor but I am not moving. There is a crash. I feel it, but my head is so full of panic that I do not hear it. The noise booms through me as the glass shards down on me. I remember nothing until I do and then I wish I didn’t. They are standing above me. One of them has pulled me to my knees by the scruff of my neck. He is asking me something but I cannot hear what he is saying. He shakes me. He is asking me, again and again. It is a name. I look at him. My face hurts. “Are you stupid?” he says. “Did you hear me?” “Don’t hurt me,” I say. “Please don’t hurt me.” “Where is she? Where is Sam?” “Sam?” I say. It takes my brain a minute to register. I think I am crying. “Where is she?” “At work,” I say. I do not know what is happening. I do not know but I answer. He kicks me. “Liar,” he says. “She works for me,” he booms it off the walls. He stares at me. He pulls me up so that I am level with his face. “She owes me,” he says. “What?” I say. “She owes me.” “I don’t know her.” It is like slow motion as he raises his immense fist and smashes it down towards me. As it impacts I feel nothing and then nothing else but the pain searing across my face. He lifts it again. “No,” I say. “Please.” I beg him through my tears. The sound of police sirens cuts the air. He stops, he drops it. He turns to his friend and they say something quietly. There is no urgency. “If I don’t find her,” he looms over me as I squirm on the floor, “I’m coming back for you.” He waits, he pushes me with his boot, “Understand?” I scramble to my feet. I run to the bedroom. I find my mobile. There is a missed call from Sam. “Dan,” she says. “I tried to tell you.’ I think I can hear a man’s voice in the background. I ring her number. “Sorry,” the voice says. “This number has been disconnected.”
About the author
Siobhan Osborne has a MA in writing and lives in south-east London in a house with no windows. She is currently working on her second novel. 97
W
e asked our son what he’d like to do for his 15th birthday. He didn’t think for long. “Let’s all get pizza and sit down in the lounge and watch Tron,” he said. My heart sang. Tron, released by Disney to mixed reviews in 1982, isn’t just any movie. It was one of the first from a major studio to use digital special effects, yet (compare and contrast to Avatar), the heart of the film is in its script. Writer-director Steven Lisberger wasn’t a computer programmer. But he somehow crafted a script that reads as a virtual manifesto, whose core struggle is that between the coders (honest, moral) and the businessmen (greedy, immoral). When the hero, Flynn, complains to his ambitious, controlling superior, Dillinger, about the way their computer system has been locked down so that users cannot even get access to their own programs, Dillinger snaps that he “can’t sit and worry about every little user request”. “User requests are what computers are for!” gasps Flynn. “Doing our business is what computers are for,” says Dillinger. And there you have it: geeks versus suits, for the ages. But that’s not why I was so happy about our birthday screening. That was the birthday when we were able to move past birthday conventions for which our family has never been well equipped. We’ve never had hordes of schoolmates turning up for cake and cola. My son has only a couple of mates in his peer group, and he hasn’t been to conventional school for three years. He and his older brother are both Asperger Syndrome, a condition on the autism spectrum. Even if you haven’t heard of Asperger’s, you will have at least seen it depicted. It’s a way of being that has become a modern TV trope: usually as the socially awkward, brilliant oddball. Think Temperance Brennan in Bones, or the character of Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon’s lines are, to the
Mind’s Eye
Time for Geek Chic Russell Brown examines Asperger Syndrome and how it is part of mainstream culture initiated, a stream of Aspie in-jokes: his insensibility to irony and social nuance, his adherence to habit (see what happens when someone takes Sheldon’s regular spot on the sofa), even his slightly-off neologisms (“Bazinga!”). Until recently, Shortland Street had Gabrielle, a character who, creditably, actually struggled to navigate the world, and who was specifically identified as Asperger. On American TV, the A-word is rarely mentioned. We’re just invited to enjoy these fashionable clusters of behaviours without really knowing why. Real life on the autism spectrum isn’t always so cute. Kim Peek, a rare genuine savant, and the model for Dustin Hoffman’s Rain Man character, couldn’t even dress himself in the morning. People with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are over-represented in statistics for imprisonment, mental illness and marriage failure. In many respects, ours is not a world made for them, and
their failure to anticipate its quirks can have painful consequences. The push back has come from the nascent autism rights community, which has reframed the idea of neurological disability, referring to ASD in terms of “neurodiversity”, while the rest of us are “neurotypical”. I also tend to think in terms of ‘difference’ rather than ‘diagnosis’. My son and his brother are strikingly different from each other, but share in common their difference from most other people. They are differently wired, and living with them has taught me how people are different. That sounds airy-fairy, but it’s not: it’s useful in a nitty-gritty way for a journalist to grasp that somebody else might have another experience of the world. The remarkable thing is this is a good age in which to be different in this way. Aspies have tools to communicate and network, and the giant space of the internet and the gaming sphere in which to meet and play. They help make this space. Computer security and programming are littered with people who may or may not be diagnosable, but are clearly wired a certain way. We’re still getting to grips with the way our son learns, but when he does it, he does it fast – and he seems to have some abilities (reading a whole screen of code at once) that most don’t. My kids have a stake in this. And, crucially, they have a rightful stake in its surrounding culture: geek culture. This has, in turn, become our family culture. We convene over Doctor Who, Lolcats, computers and movies. It’s a signal of the contemporary heft of that culture that, 28 years on, Stephen Lisberger has returned to produce a sequel: Tron Legacy. When that movie finally hits the screens this Christmas, you can bet that we’ll be booking the best seats. And, yup, we might just be having pizza afterwards. Russell Brown is a media commentator and blogger and lives in Auckland
The Red Bulletin is published by Red Bulletin GMBH Editor-In-Chief Robert Sperl Editorial Office Anthony Rowlinson (Executive Editor), Stefan Wagner Associate Editor Paul Wilson Contributing Editor Andreas Tzortzis Chief Sub-editor Nancy James Production Editor Grant Smyth Photo Editors Susie Forman (Chief), Fritz Schuster Deputy Photo Editors Markus Kucera, Valerie Rosenburg, Catherine Shaw Design Erik Turek (Art Director), Claudia Drechsler, Miles English, Judit Fortelny, Markus Kietreiber Staff Writers Werner Jessner, Uschi Korda, Ruth Morgan Contributors Russell Brown, Ulrich Corazza, Wesley Doyle, Paul Faye, Tom Hall, Iva Jagoda, Andreas Jaros, Johnathan Jenkins, Peter Krobath, Florian Obkircher, Siobhan Osborne, Olivia Rosen, Thomas Schrefl, Steve Smith, Robert Tighe, André Voigt Repro Managers Christian Graf-Simpson, Clemens Ragotzky Augmented Reality Martin Herz, www.imagination.at General Managers Karl Abentheuer, Rudolf Theierl International Project Management Jan Cremer, Bernd Fisa, Norman Howell, Sandra Sieder Office & Editorial Manager Kate Robson Administrator Sarah Thompson Finance Siegmar Hofstetter The Red Bulletin is published simultaneously in Austria, the UK, Germany, Ireland, Poland, South Africa and New Zealand on the first Tuesday of every month. Website www.redbulletin.com. Head office: Red Bulletin GmbH, Am Brunnen 1, A-5330 Fuschl am See, FN 287869m, ATU63087028. UK office: 14 Soho Square, London W1D 3QG, +44 (0)20 7434 8600. Austrian office: Heinrich-Collin-Strasse 1, A-1140 Vienna, +43 1 90221 28800. Printed by APN Print NZ Limited, 587 Gt South Road, Manukau City 2104, Auckland. For all advertising enquiries, contact Group Sales Manager Michelle Dryden or email michelle.dryden@apn.co.nz or adsales@redbulletin.co.nz. Write to us: email letters@redbulletin.com
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Mad Mike: Catch my drift? Smokin’ and sideways at 230kph in a bad-ass rocketship that burns 28 tyres a day. business as usual for ‘mad’ mike...
